UH Hilo chosen for nationwide student success network with focus on workforce development
The network’s tailored analysis will examine how UH Hilo’s degree offerings align with employer demand across the island’s healthcare, education, agriculture and sustainability sectors.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo has been selected as one of 17 rural-serving public universities nationwide to join the inaugural Rural Student Success Network. UH Hilo is the only institution from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region named to the cohort.
The new initiative, led by Ithaka S+R in partnership with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), is aimed at helping more students from rural communities reach graduation.
Funded by a two-year grant from the Educational Credit Management Corporation Foundation’s Rural Impact Initiative, the network brings together four-year rural-serving institutions from 12 states committed to strengthening student success and economic mobility in the communities they serve.
“Every graduate who crossed our stage this month is proof that rural-serving institutions change lives,” says UH Hilo Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin, referring to the recent 2026 Spring Commencement with 589 graduates, including 506 bachelor’s degrees, nearly 200 first-generation college students, and a class spanning ages 19 to 79. “This network gives us a powerful new chance to learn alongside peer institutions and make sure more of our students get the milestone the Class of 2026 just had.”
Each campus in the network receives a $15,000 subgrant from Ithaka S+R plus customized analyses comparing academic offerings against local workforce demand.
Three priorities: transfers, adult learners, and workforce needs across the island’s healthcare, education, agriculture and sustainability sectors
As part of the program over the next 18 months, UH Hilo will engage in peer learning, data-informed self-assessment and targeted technical assistance across the network’s three priority areas: helping community college transfer students complete their bachelor’s degrees, re-engaging adult learners, and aligning academic programs with regional workforce needs.
UH Hilo will focus on the transfer and workforce tracks, work that naturally encompasses the adult learners returning to finish a degree they once started. The network’s tailored analysis will examine how UH Hilo’s degree offerings align with employer demand across the island’s healthcare, education, agriculture and sustainability sectors.
“This is about strengthening the bridge between a student starting at a UH Community College and one walking across the UH Hilo stage with a bachelor’s degree,” Irwin said. “It’s about the working parent who left UH Hilo three years ago and is wondering whether they can come back. It’s about making sure the degree we offer is the one our island’s employers are actually hiring for. The work doesn’t change who we are, it sharpens it.”
-Read full story at UH System News
