The University of Hawaii at Manoa has received a full 10 years of accreditation, the longest period possible, by the Senior College & University Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, UH officials announced.

The accreditation report was effusive in its praise of the lead campus of the UH system, but it also made recommendations for improving its finances and governance, and making more progress toward becoming a “Native Hawaiian place of learning,” among several areas for change.

The accreditation is important because it indicates institutional quality, and accreditation is required by the U.S. Department of Education for students to be able to get access to federal financial assistance, including student loans. UH Manoa has been fully accredited since 1955.

The other nine campuses of the UH system are undergoing separate accreditation evaluations.

UH Manoa Provost Michael Bruno said in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview Wednesday that it’s important for the public to know that accreditation is difficult to attain, and “never a slam dunk.” The entire campus underwent rigorous evaluations of multiple areas, including support for students and faculty, and academics and research, and the accreditation report praised UH Manoa’s commitment to self-study and improvement in the process, he said.

UH President David Lassner said in a news release that “receiving the full 10 years of reaffirmation shows that Hawaii’s flagship university continues to operate at the highest level of excellence when it comes to providing higher education for the people of Hawaii. It also shows that we are committed to continuous improvement as we meet the needs of our students and our state.”

Bruno said he’s never seen an accreditation report so complimentary in his 36 years in academia.

The work toward accreditation began in 2017 and involved a new WASC process called “Thematic Pathway for Reaffirmation,” in which a university is required to demonstrate compliance with association standards while advancing issues important to its campus community. UH Manoa’s themes were “Native Hawaiian Place of Learning,” “Transformational Student Success” and “Academic Innovation and Engaged Learning.”

In a letter Tuesday, the association recognized the 19,000-student Manoa campus for numerous achievements. Among them were the Wayfinding Project, which incorporates Native Hawaiian language and navigation. “This commission noted the project may be a model for other institutions,” the UH release said.

The Institute for Sustainability and Resilience also was lauded for simultaneously advancing its teaching, research and service missions on topics of critical importance to the state, and developing sustainability courses as a curricular innovation. A UH data management system also scored recognition.

But Bruno said he’s proudest of the report’s praise for a campus culture that is “strongly focused on student success,” including UH Manoa’s academic advising, learning initiatives and student services.

He contends that critics who have said UH faculty are too strongly focused on research may not understand that student success and faculty research are not at cross purposes, but compliment each other, bringing more advanced, real-world knowledge into the classroom.

Bruno said he tells parents, “Do you want your son or daughter learning from a faculty member who picked up a book, and is teaching what is in that book, or would you rather have them learn from the person who wrote the book? It’s that simple.”

Manoa faculty also brought in a record $353 million in external grants last year — which goes into the economy and helps fund UH positions, equipment and more to benefit students, Bruno added.

Among the WASC team’s recommendations for improvement following a visit last fall is a call to reduce an “overreliance on soft money and volunteerism in implementing programs and services in areas that otherwise are best supported with permanent institutional resources.”

Bruno said he interprets that to mean the WASC would like to see a more reliable stream of support from state general funds, and the report was making an indirect reference to the painful $38 million budget cut that UH Manoa suffered in last year’s Legislative session.

More concrete timetables are needed for UH Manoa to reach its goals in student success, the report also said. UH Manoa also should “regularly survey the broader campus environment on issues relating to a supportive climate for the diverse campus community,” the report said, and “continue the journey of becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning through greater transparency, inclusion, consensus about defined initiatives, and parallel high-level resource support.”

The governance of UH Manoa also needs scrutiny, including a policy that “clearly defines conflict of interest,” because of the unique executive structure under which the UH Manoa CEO serves as the UH system president, the report said.

Another portion of the report noted tension between the Legislature and the UH Board of Regents, “prompting questions about the nexus between the two entities and what, if any, influence may be coming from without.” The review team said there should be a “continuity of care regarding non-interference in substantive decisions or educational functions (e.g., faculty hiring and retention) that are core to the integrity of any institution of higher learning.”

The controversies surrounding the Thirty-Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea and the UH football team were observed by the accreditation team but were not roadblocks to approval, Bruno said.

More information is available on the UH Manoa accreditation web page.