The University of Hawaii at Manoa announced campus’ enrollment surpassed 20,000 students for the first time in over a decade. 

While the numbers will not be finalized until the first week of October, as of Tuesday, there are 20,012 students enrolled at UH Manoa, according to a release.

“This milestone is the work of so many who over these past years have built a superb enrollment management program that recruits great students from Hawaii and beyond,” said UH President David Lassner in a statement. “And it's not just about recruiting students, it's about retaining them. Credit for that goes to our amazing faculty, our advisers, our support staff, and all of the people who make Hawaii’s own global research university such a special place to study.”

Other milestones reached at UH Manoa in 2024 include a record high 3,123 first-time freshmen. This is the third year in a row with 3,000 or more freshmen enrolled at UH Manoa, after surpassing the mark in 2022 for the first time in the university’s 117-year history. 

Also, 1,849 of the freshmen are Hawaii residents, up from 1,581 in fall 2023; 489 identify as Native Hawaiian, up from 382 in fall 2023; and 406 identify as Filipino, up from 355 in fall 2023.

“I am so proud to see the increases in our Native Hawaiian and Filipino students, as better serving these underrepresented groups has long been a top priority at UH Manoa,” said UH Mānoa vice provost for enrollment management, Nikki Chun.

Chun attributed the growth in all these categories to the changes made to the merit scholarship program, which is now more focused on enrolling Hawaii resident students.

UH Manoa disbursed $81.6 million to more than 11,400 students this year compared to $74.6 million to more than 9,900 students in 2023, according to Chun.