History Degrees in Hawaii

Hawaiians published newspapers in Hawaiian from 1834 onward, and the surviving run comes to more than 100,000 pages. The material covers almost everything: local and international news, literature, genealogy, land, weather, argument. It is a record of the islands written by the people living in them rather than by visitors describing them, and for most of the last century it sat largely unread, because reading it requires the language. Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu are now cataloging the papers, redigitizing the clearest pages, and making them word-searchable and free through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Papakilo Database. Few places in the country have a primary source of that size waiting on people able to use it. The universities that might train those readers are few, and what they offer is plainer than you would guess.

Hawaii has 4 colleges and universities offering history degrees, with 6 programs among them: 4 bachelor’s degrees, 1 master’s degree, and 1 doctorate.

Only four schools teach the subject here, so instead of rank them we list all four below.

Where You Can Study History in Hawaii

With four schools in the state, a ranked list would be misleading. Below is the whole field, largest catalog first. The completion rates are institution-wide, not history-specific, and tuition is published in-state cost without room or board.

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Manoa is the only school in Hawaii teaching history beyond a bachelor’s, and it carries the full ladder: a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. in History. It is also the state’s only R1 research university. Anyone intending graduate study in history without leaving Hawaii is applying here, because there is no second option at either level.

• History programs: 3
• Levels offered: Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral
• Carnegie classification: R1, very high research activity
• In-state tuition and fees: $12,186

University of Hawaii at Hilo

Hilo offers a single B.A. in History at $7,838, the cheapest public option in the state and about $4,300 less than Manoa. It sits on Hawaii Island rather than Oahu, which matters more here than campus location usually does, since the alternative involves an interisland flight, not a drive.

• History programs: 1
• Levels offered: Bachelor’s
• Carnegie classification: Doctoral/professional university
• In-state tuition and fees: $7,838

Brigham Young University-Hawaii

BYU-Hawaii offers a B.A. in History at $6,630, the cheapest history degree in the state. It is a private college undercutting both public universities, because its church subsidizes tuition. The same pattern appears at its sister campuses: BYU-Idaho at $4,800 is the third-cheapest history degree in the country and BYU in Utah charges $6,688.

• History programs: 1
• Levels offered: Bachelor’s
• Carnegie classification: Baccalaureate college, diverse fields
• In-state tuition and fees: $6,630

Hawaii Pacific University

Hawaii Pacific offers a B.A. in History at $34,392, more than five times what BYU-Hawaii charges and nearly three times Manoa. Its 35% four-year completion rate is the lowest of the four. The case for it rests on the institution and its Honolulu setting rather than on the history catalog, which is one degree like the two schools above it.

• History programs: 1
• Levels offered: Bachelor’s
• Carnegie classification: Master’s university, larger programs
• In-state tuition and fees: $34,392

Most Affordable History Degrees in Hawaii

Most affordable history degrees in Hawaii

Rank	School	Program	Tuition per year
1	Brigham Young University-Hawaii	B.A. in History	$6,630
2	University of Hawaii at Hilo	B.A. in History	$7,838
3	University of Hawaii at Manoa	B.A. in History	$12,186
4	Hawaii Pacific University	B.A. in History	$34,392

Annual in-state tuition and fees. Four entries, because four is every school in Hawaii that teaches the subject. The cheapest option is private, which is true of almost no other state.

History Education in Hawaii

Hawaii has one of the smallest history offerings in the country, and by some distance the plainest.

There are six programs across four schools, and every one of them is titled History. Not a single program in the state carries a named field. There is no art history degree, no public history program, no museum studies credential, no military or regional specialty anywhere in our listings. Most states of comparable size have at least one or two. In Hawaii the choice is a history degree, and the shaping happens through coursework and advisers rather than through the name on the diploma.

Graduate study means one institution. Manoa holds the state’s only master’s and only doctorate and is the only R1. Three of the four schools stop at the bachelor’s.

There are no online history programs in Hawaii at all. For a state where getting between campuses means flying, that is a real gap, and it is the one finding on this page most likely to change somebody’s plans. Distance students will be enrolling with an institution on the mainland, and our guide to online history degrees covers those options.

The cost list runs against the national pattern. The cheapest history degree in Hawaii is at a private college, BYU-Hawaii at $6,630, below both public universities. That is the third church-subsidized campus to do this in our data, after BYU-Idaho at $4,800 and BYU in Utah at $6,688. Hilo at $7,838 is the cheapest public route and undercuts Manoa by about $4,300. At the far end, Hawaii Pacific charges $34,392.

Transfer inside the University of Hawaii system is unusually well protected, and the protection is worth understanding before you pick a starting campus. Under a memorandum of agreement dating from May 2010 and applying to students who entered in Fall 2011 or later, completing the general education core at any one of the ten UH campuses means you are treated as having satisfied it at any other UH campus. The system runs three universities, Manoa, Hilo, and West Oahu, and seven community colleges.

The clause that matters most: on transfer, your transcript is not subject to course-by-course review for general education compliance. Many states promise a block transfer and then re-examine it line by line at the receiving campus. Hawaii commits to not doing that. Reviews can still happen to confirm specific degree requirements and prerequisites for upper-division work. Details are with the University of Hawaii.

Becoming a History Teacher in Hawaii

Teaching licenses in Hawaii are issued by the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, and candidates take Praxis assessments in their license field.

For a history graduate the relevant credential is in social studies, and the state maps that content area to the Praxis Social Studies: Content Knowledge test at secondary level, with Middle School Social Studies covering the middle grades. You will need a passing score on the appropriate one. The Standards Board accepts only the approved Praxis tests listed on its ETS page, so check there instead of assuming a test you have already sat will count.

We have deliberately not printed a passing mark here. Cut scores are set by the Board and revised periodically, and a stale number is worse than none, particularly since ETS retired the long-standing Praxis social studies test and replaced it in late 2025. Any requirement list written before that may be quoting an exam that no longer exists.

Get the current test and its passing score from the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board before you plan a degree around them.

History Careers in Hawaii

History Careers in Hawaii

Occupation	Hawaii jobs	Hawaii median	vs. U.S. median
Secondary school teachers	5,590	$74,310	+3%
Historians	70	$92,520	+21%
Curators	140	$50,720	-20%
Postsecondary history teachers	not published	not published	n/a
Archivists	not published	not published	n/a

Employment and wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. The Bureau published nothing for postsecondary history teachers or archivists here, neither headcounts nor pay.

Two of these rows point in opposite directions, and the gap between them is the most useful thing on this page for anyone choosing a career, not a degree.

Historians in Hawaii earn a median $92,520, which is 21% above the national figure and eighth-highest of the 31 states that publish this row. Curators earn $50,720, which is 20% below national and 46th of the 49 states publishing that one. Those are adjacent occupations in the same state at opposite ends of the national distribution.

The job counts sharpen it. There are 140 curator positions and 70 historian positions, so the larger market is the poorly paid one. Hawaii supports a substantial number of museum and collections jobs, plenty of them at historic sites and cultural institutions, and pays near the bottom of the country for them. The smaller pool of research and analyst roles pays well.

Secondary school teaching sits at $74,310, about 3% above national, across 5,590 positions. That is where almost all the employment is, and it is the steadiest figure here.

One caution about all of it: these are nominal wages, and Hawaii’s cost of living is not comparable to the mainland average. Read the curator figure as bad and the historian figure as good, but read both alongside what housing costs where you would be working.

History Resources in Hawaii

• Hawaiʻi State Archives, 364 South King Street, Honolulu, in the Kekāuluohi Building on the ʻIolani Palace grounds. Records run from 1790 onward and include government records, manuscripts, photographs, maps, Constitutional Convention records, gubernatorial papers, and digitized indexes to nineteenth and early twentieth century vital statistics. Open Monday to Friday, 9 to 4, closed weekends and state holidays. Space is tight enough that only one person may use photocopying or video equipment at a time, so plan the reproduction side of a visit in advance.
• Bishop Museum Library and Archives, Honolulu, holds the Hawaiian-language newspaper collection described at the top of this page. The He Aupuni Palapala project with Awaiaulu is cataloging and redigitizing the nūpepa and putting them into the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Papakilo Database, searchable and free. For anyone who reads or is learning Hawaiian, this is the most significant primary source in the state.

Frequently Asked Questions