Free Office for Students

Microsoft announced that starting December 1st your school district can start handing out Office 365 free to its students.

Educational institutions, whether K-12 school districts or those in higher education, that license Office Professional Plus 2013 or Office 365 ProPlus — the former is traditionally-licensed software while the latter is a subscription — can now also hand Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions to students, free of charge.

Schools and universities must have licensed Office for staff and faculty institution-wide, according to Microsoft, to be eligible for the student give-away. When students graduate, their Office 365 subscription expires.

Office 365 ProPlus includes rights to download and install copies of the newest Office desktop applications on up to five Windows PCs or Macs owned by the student, as well as rights to run the iPhone or Android editions of Office Mobile.

This assumes that your school district uses Microsoft Office. If they don’t, then I have to wonder how good of job they can possibly be doing. Every business uses this software so every student needs to know it. I read recently that 85% of all job listing in Monster list proficiency in Office as a requirement. School districts are eligible for nearly free/severely discounted licenses themselves so there’s really no excuse for them not to participate.

But if yours doesn’t then there’s this option:

Students, faculty and staff at universities that do not equip employees with Office can instead pay a flat $80 for a four-year subscription to Office 365 University. That subscription program allows Office 2013 to be installed on up to two PCs or Macs, and Office Mobile on as many as two mobile devices.

Do note that just like in your business when the licensing allows multiple installations, it is multiple installations on devices used by a single individual never at the same time. So for example you can install it on your desktop and your laptop. Or your laptop and your phone. Or your desktop and your tablet.

-Amy

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