Nearly 20 percent of undergraduate courses at UH-Manoa have fewer than 10 students, says a new University of Hawaii report prepared as part of a push to find long-term opportunities for bringing down the cost of educating students.

UH officials analyzed class sizes, student-to-faculty ratios, faculty productivity and graduation rates for the report but say they’re months away from drawing any conclusions from the results.

They also point out that while small classes are relatively expensive — as are low student-to-faculty ratios — they’re also beneficial.

"The whole point is to get a more nuanced look at what’s driving costs," said Linda Johnsrud, UH provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. "The dilemma is that many of the measures that are pointed to as indications of quality are expensive."

The report, presented to the Board of Regents on Thursday, was meant as a starting point for developing a strategic plan to tackle the rising costs of education amid declining state funding for UH operational costs.

UH has been increasing tuition steadily in recent years, but officials say asking students to shoulder additional burdens —without looking for ways to save money — isn’t sustainable.

So the university, with the support of the BOR, is embarking on an effort to come up with "efficiency and productivity" goals, which could include increasing faculty workloads and decreasing the number of course offerings.

The report found:

» Just 24 percent of undergraduate courses at UH-Manoa have more than 25 students, and that figure has remained relatively steady since 2005. At UH-Hilo, 27 percent of courses have more than 25 students, while nearly half of courses at UH-West Oahu have more than 25.

» UH-Manoa had the highest percentage of undergraduate courses with fewer than 10 students — at 19 percent — followed by UH-Hilo at 13 percent and UH community colleges at 8 percent. At UH-West Oahu, 4 percent of courses had fewer than 10 students.

» UH-Manoa had a lower student-to-faculty ratio — at 12-to-1 — than its mainland peer institutions, where the average student-to-faculty ratio is 18-to-1. The ratio at UH-Hilo is 15-to-1, compared with 16-to-1 for its peer group.

» Faculty at UH-Manoa put in 332 "student semester hours" on average in 2012, while the average for their peer group was 545. The number represents the number of credits each faculty member taught multiplied by the number of students and the number of classes taught.

» Faculty at UH-Hilo generated 389 student semester hours in 2012, while those in their peer group average 505.

Board of Regents members said the results indicated there was room for cutting costs.

"It’s a good start," BOR Chairman Eric Martinson said at Thursday’s meeting. "Some of these measures raise productivity questions."

Regents Vice Chairman Carl Carlson added, "I think these metrics are quite telling. It’s also a beginning of a conversation. It may be a difficult discussion."

Administrators plan to take that discussion to campus chancellors and faculty soon, and hope to hold a summit in the fall to narrow down how the university can cut costs without hurting the educational experiences of students.

Bonnyjean Manini, UH-Manoa Faculty Senate chairwoman, said since she hadn’t yet seen the results of the report, it was tough to weigh in on it.

But she urged caution in using the figures to make decisions about workload and class size.

She said further study is necessary to determine, for example, how many of the small classes are required for graduation or are in specialized areas.

"I would want to know what kind of courses we’re talking about," she said. "I think it’s important that faculty across the UH system have the opportunity to see … the report, that it be presented and a dialogue happen."

The report’s results on class sizes did come as a surprise even to UH officials, who said they assumed that class sizes would have increased during the economic downturn.

Manini said class sizes for popular lower-level courses may have well have swelled, and that increase wouldn’t have been reflected in the report.