Hawai?i Pacific University (HPU) was established as a private, non-sectarian university in 1965 in the city of Honolulu in the state of Hawaii, USA. The state granted a charter allowing Hawai?i Pacific College to be established after a group of citizens and civic leaders highlighted the need for a new higher education institution. The first class of seven students graduated in 1972. Over the years the University has grown and broadened its academic program, becoming Hawai?i Pacific University in 1990. The institution has also incorporated several other schools, colleges and research centres to become the largest private university in the central Pacific.
Today HPU is home to several thousand students studying a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Subjects are grouped into five colleges: the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural and Computational Sciences, the College of Business Administration, the College of Extended and Interdisciplinary Education and the College of Health and Society. The university has one of the most culturally diverse student bodies to be found anywhere in the USA with students from nearly 80 countries represented.
The university has two main campuses, the largest of these is in downtown Honolulu and is home to the College of Business Administration and College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This campus is composed of six buildings in the centre of the city＊s business district housing computer labs, libraries and teaching rooms. The other campus is eight miles away in the green foothills of the O＆ahu＊s Ko＆olau mountains. This campus covers 135 acres and houses the College of Natural Computational Sciences and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. There are also several learning centres associated with the university including The Oceanic Institute which specialises in Marine Biology.
