Student Advantage is a Microsoft programme that allows students at eligible education institutions access Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus FOR FREE!  Today, more than 35,000 institutions are automatically eligible to deliver the Student Advantage benefit to their students.

According to a 2013 study by IDC, Microsoft Office ranks as the 3rd most required skill of the 20 most needed future job skills.  Student Advantage is part of Microsoft’s commitment to education, ensuring that the workforce of the future is equipped with the relevant IT skills to meet these requirements.

Student Advantage helps students prepare for Microsoft Office Specialist certification using Office applications at home (as well as in school).  Combined with live-in-application training from GMetrix (part of Prodigy Learning’s Four Stage Learning Solution for MOS), students can learn by doing.   

What is included in Student Advantage?

Education institutions that license Office for staff and faculty can provide access to Office 365 ProPlus for students at no additional cost.  Office 365 ProPlus includes all the familiar and full Office applications — locally installed on up to five devices (including iPad) and available offline.

When a school combines Student Advantage with Microsoft’s other cloud services, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online, all available free through Office 365 Education, students have access to the same set of gold-standard productivity tools and services used by Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

How do institutions qualify for Student Advantage?

Institutions must meet the following criteria:

• You must have an OVS-ES or EES volume licensing agreement.
• You must cover 100% of your faculty/staff for Office on that OVS/ES or EES agreement.

If you think you do not meet the criteria but would like to get Student Advantage for your institution, please contact us to discuss moving to an eligible volume licensing agreement.

How do institutions get Student Advantage?

As long as you meet the criteria you’ll need to contact your licensing reseller to order the free Student Advantage licences. The next steps will depend on which type of volume licence agreement you have.

How do institutions promote Student Advantage to students?

Microsoft has prepared a useful guide (download from here) to help institutions get started promoting Office 365 to students.

Additional resources are available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office-students-marketing-resources/.