Beginning this year, students at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) can now pursue a degree entirely consisting of online courses, giving working students more flexibility to achieve their goal of earning a degree.
The online degree program will be launched in phases over the course of two years for certain degrees. Each online course will run for a total of five weeks and will available for UH students in certain programs beginning fall 2020.
“We know that many Hawaiʻi residents want to earn a college degree but have competing demands, which make it difficult to take classes at a college campus,” said John Morton, vice president of community colleges at UH. “This program allows students to learn on their own schedule and to focus on one class at a time.”
The first cohort of students in the degree program will begin in the fall 2019 semester for an Associate in Arts degree. Students in this cohort will take pilot classes from each of UH’s seven community college campuses, according to Big Island Now.
Students in the Associate in Arts degree cohort will complete the program and receive their degree from Leeward Community College in December 2021 and then can pursue a bachelor’s degree if wanted.
“It’s going to be focused, it’s going to be flexible, it’s going to be affordable and it’s going to be an opportunity for primarily adults who are raising a family and working to go back to school or go to school for the first time and earn an associate’s degree,” said UH president David Lassner. “They can do it at night, they can do it in the morning around their work schedules, around their childcare.”
Applications for the online degree program open on the university’s website on March 1, 2019.
