Hawaii Tribune-Herald Sunday, March 19, 2017 13 University helps fuel Hilo’s economy nearly 500 acres at its Science and Technology Park. Construction of a 45,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building to house its Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy also is underway Vulcan Athletics A rich history and tradition of enriching lives through academics, athletics and community service. Mahalo for your support! SOCIALIZATION MENTAL STIMULATION FUN! hawaiiislandadultcare.org 961-3747 A non-profit and Hawaii Island United Way Agency Licensed, Insured, Accredited UNIVERSITY TOWN When the University of Hawaii at Hilo first opened in 1947, enrollment was just a few dozen students. It was known simply as the Hilo program back then, a tiny extension of UH-Manoa. It’s since come a long way. The Hilo campus is now the secondlargest in the UH system. More than 3,500 students are enrolled this semester in nearly 40 undergraduate programs, eight graduate programs and four doctorate programs. The campus is sprawled over hundreds of acres in East Hawaii including its 115-acre main campus in Hilo, a 110-acre Panaewa agricultural farm, and PHARMACY From page 12 our accreditors,” Ma said. “Having everybody together is always a better thing.” Test scores The pharmacy school also wants to continue improving student performance on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination, a national standardized licensing exam. Its scores were among the lowest in the country as recently as 2011 but have since improved overall. The school began offering an online, self-paced course this year to help introduce and prepare fourthyear pharmacy students to take the exam. Supakit Wongwiwatthananukit, pharmacy professor and interim associate dean for academic affairs at the college, said UH-Hilo pharmacy students now are performing about on par with students nationally. UH-Hilo’s 2016 class earned an 84.15 first-time pass rate on the exam, up from 82.76 in 2015 but down from 91.25 in 2014. Pharmacy students nationally earned an 85.86 average first-time pass rate on the exam in 2016, 92.64 percent in 2015 and 94.88 percent in 2014. Partnerships abroad Last month, the pharmacy school announced a new exchange program agreement with Khon Kaen University in Thailand — its fifth agreement with a Thai university. The agreement could give Hilo pharmacy students more opportunities to collaborate on research and academic projects in Thailand, for example working together for distance-learning courses, conducting joint research projects and embarking on exchanges abroad. The partnership is one of several the college has in place with different countries, Ma said. It also recently signed agreements with schools in Japan and China. “We’re really just trying to set up these opportunities,” Ma said. “It’s definitely an exciting thing.” As of this spring, enrollment at the pharmacy college was 314 students, roughly on par with past years. Each year, about 50 percent of the students are residents of the Big Island. and slated for a 2018 completion. UH-Hilo also is a major boon to the island’s economy. It generates more than $428 million each year in business activity as a result of its operations on Hawaii Island, according to 2012 data from the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. And in 2012 — the latest year data is available — direct local spending as a result of the campus fed $221 million into the local economy and employed 3,326 people who collected nearly $127 million in income. That impact is the same as what the county would see if nearly 4.5, 2,000-passenger cruise ships docked in Hilo each day. Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@ hawaiitribune-herald.com. By KIRSTEN JOHNSON Hawaii Tribune-Herald
UN2017
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