Tuition Incentive Helps Coppin State Expand Its Reach Beyond Maryland

In what Coppin State University president Anthony L. Jenkins refers to as a “historic ride,” enrollment at the Baltimore-based HBCU is expected to land in the mid-3,000s this fall – well over the 2,100 students who enrolled in 2021, the Baltimore Banner reports.

Enrollment at the university grew from 2,101 students to 2,790 between 2021 and 2025 – a turnaround the newspaper credits to a “first-of-its-kind” tuition incentive program called Expand Eagle Nation. The program offers in-state tuition to students from the 30 or so states that don’t have historically Black colleges and universities. The program has drawn students from coast to coast, from places such as The Bronx to Long Beach.

Jenkins told the newspaper he won approval for the program in 2023 after enrollment at the university had dropped 44% over the previous decade. Part of his pitch, the newspaper noted, was pointing out that nearly 80% of Coppin’s graduates stay in Maryland after graduation, and over 50% stay in Baltimore, thereby strengthening the region economically.

Coppin State’s comeback story is part of a larger enrollment “surge” among HBCUs, some of which have achieved record enrollments as of late. For instance, enrollment at Edward Waters University, an HBCU in Jacksonville, Florida, hit a 20-year high in 2025 when 1,210 students registered for Fall 2025—a 30% increase from the 932 students enrolled in Fall 2019.

“Undoubtedly, widespread campus unrest and the end of race-sensitive admissions at predominantly White colleges and universities have been contributing factors to the surge in enrollments at many HBCUs,” the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education noted in fall 2025.

A closer look at some of the HBCUs experiencing enrollment growth shows the institutions have invested in strategic initiatives to boost enrollment and provide academic support for students who need it. For instance, at Edward Waters, there is a Strategic Enrollment and Retention Team (S.E.R.T.) that involves collaboration between admissions, financial aid, student accounts, and academic affairs offices. The Baltimore Banner notes that at Coppin State, there’s an “academic penthouse” on the top floor of a campus library that features “a writing center, math tutors and a suite of advisors to make sure students are staying on the right path.”