Newsweek ranks Hawaii Pacific University as one of the costliest universities in the country in terms of the debt incurred by its graduates versus their earnings potential, but other rankings have pegged the school as a good value.
The magazine’s calculation for HPU appears to have been skewed because it left out a crucial factor: the percentage of its students who graduate with debt, which is low on that campus.
Todd Simmons, vice president for marketing and communications at HPU, said he has asked Newsweek to correct the record and remove the university from the rankings of "Most Costly" colleges.
"We have been recognized by a number of publications for the value that we offer," Simmons said. "In this case, where it omits such a key data point for HPU, it’s hard to invest a lot of credibility in it. It is journalistically irresponsible to have included us in such a prominent ranking without obtaining current data for that category."
Simmons noted that HPU is regularly listed in Barron’s "Best Buys in College Education" book and that Bloomberg Businessweek called HPU the "Best Return on Investment of Any Undergraduate Degree in Hawaii" in 2010. The 2009 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study found HPU students’ debt level to be 27 percent of the average for private universities, he said.
Newsweek’s College Rankings 2012 placed HPU fifth on its "Most Costly" list, which attempted to measure "long-term affordability" of schools nationwide.
The rating took four factors into account, each weighted equally: debt, total cost, financial aid and future earnings. Debt was measured as average debt per student and the percentage of students who graduate with debt. The percentage of students who graduate with debt at HPU was listed as "not available" in the Newsweek calculation for that school but was included in the calculations for other ranked colleges.
The No. 1 entry on the "Most Costly" list, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., had 99 percent of its students graduate with debt, according to Newsweek. The magazine said College InSight was the source for its data.
When the Star-Advertiser checked the full entry for HPU on College InSight’s website, it showed 37 percent of its students graduate with debt, well below the other "Most Costly" colleges.
Asked to explain why that percentage was omitted from Newsweek’s data listing and calculation for HPU, Newsweek-Daily Beast spokesman Andrew Kirk told the Star-Advertiser in an email that "we can correct the listing if it’s in error, but we are unable to correct the ranking."
HPU officials have yet to receive a response from Newsweek. Simmons said that not correcting the ranking "would violate pretty basic tenets of journalism." "Journalists are supposed to care about accuracy," Simmons said.
The other "Most Costly" colleges in Newsweek’s ranking were Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, and New York University in New York City.
The total annual cost of attending HPU was listed as $32,030, including tuition, room, board and fees. That figure is in line with the national average of $32,790 for four-year private universities in 2009-2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Newsweek listed the starting median salary for HPU’s graduates at $43,700 and the midcareer median salary as $68,400. It said that 65 percent of HPU undergraduates receive financial aid.
