UH Manoa earns $5M in grants for excellence in international education

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
R. Anderson Sutton, (808) 956-8818
Dean, School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Posted: Sep 4, 2018

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has been awarded five Title VI International Education grants from the U.S. Department of Education, keeping the campus within an elite group of U.S. universities with a dominant presence in international studies, especially in the Asia and Pacific region.

The five Title VI International Education grants are:

                        The National Resource Center (NRF) for the Pacific Islands

                        The Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for East Asia

                        The FLAS Fellowship for the Pacific Islands

                        The FLAS Fellowship for Southeast Asia

                        The Language Resource Center (LRC)

For the first year, the five grants total $1,246,327.  It is anticipated that the grants will be for a four-year cycle (2018-2022), with a combined total of $4,985,308.

Said Interim Chancellor David Lassner, “These grants recognize our superb programs in languages and area studies with our focus on Asia and the Pacific. UH Mānoa is a nationally and internationally acclaimed leader in these areas, and we play a critical role in connecting Hawai‘i and the nation with the world.”

The NRC supports modern foreign language training, teacher training, curriculum development, outreach, and library collections. The FLAS programs fund fellowships for UH Mānoa undergraduate and graduate students who are studying modern foreign languages and area studies.  The NRC and FLAS grants are housed in the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, which was established in 1987, and is considered a leader in Pacific and Asian Studies nationally and internationally.

The LRC grant was first awarded to UH Mānoa’s College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature when the program was established in 1990 and has been continuously earned since then, making UH Mānoa the oldest LRC in the nation.  UH’s LRC is part of a national network to improve the learning and teaching of foreign languages.  It accomplishes this through research, the development of teaching materials, including the use of advanced educational technology, and the training of professional language educators.

“UH Mānoa has once again garnered national recognition for its excellence in the fields of Asian and Pacific Islands Studies,” said SPAS Dean R. Anderson Sutton. “Winning these prestigious awards is a great honor, providing essential funding to bolster the study of these critically important world areas that figure so centrally in the educational mission of the UH Mānoa.”