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Microsoft Office 365 Subscription Free for Schools, Unis, Teachers and Students

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Microsoft Office for students and staff has always been discounted and occasionally free, however it's usually a bit of a hassle. Office 365 is now available for students and teachers directly from the Microsoft website.

From what I can see the free subscription allows MS Office to be installed on 5 devices, which is pretty generous.

I tested my School email address (I'm a teacher), my uni email address and my daughter's school email address and they all worked.

I can confirm this is working for a large number of Australian education providers including schools, TAFE’s and Universities.

An Office 365 subscription includes the Office 2013 apps for PC and Mac (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher) as well as 1 TB of OneDrive Storage and access to Office Web Apps.

Enjoy :)

Previous offer for school students and select university students

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closed Comments

  • +1

    Do you get free Skype minutes as well?

    • +5

      And some steak knives.

    • +1

      'dunno. But I want yo know if they include a guarantee to give you a license extension EVERY year…

      They seem to want to tie everyone ti a free fitst-year-only Software Rental like trap. How to go BACK to Good-Forever licensing (ss long as hardware & op sys remain compatible.

  • Does it expire in a year or two or I can use it forever once I install?

    • +5

      "If you are eligible, you can use the plan until you graduate or are no longer enrolled at a qualified school. Student eligibility may be re-verified at any time. At expiration, the Office applications enter a reduced-functionality mode, which means documents can be viewed but it isn’t possible to edit or create new documents. In addition, online services associated with the school email address, for example Office Online and OneDrive, will no longer work."

      • +10

        I think I might stick with MS2010.

        • +4

          I just use Google Docs. It's great for tasks that aren't convoluted.

        • +4

          @kaneissik:
          Or for people who don't want to own their documents and prefer giving them to the world's largest advertising company.

        • +2

          @Maxamillion21: Fine by me, I use it for simple tasks. If I want security then I use a local equivalent.

        • @Maxamillion21:

          Copyright remains with the creater, that is the end user.

          Don't like the ads, then pay for a subscription.

        • You're lucky you already have MS Office 2010. We needed it for an existing XP PC,which cannot use 2013, and of course not selling anywhere since its been superceded, so had to buy it off Ebay. $200 sounded like reasonable price for what was assumed to be genuine.When it arrived postmarked 'China', we realised it was a you know what.

        • @momov3:
          Did you report it to Microsoft - they'd want to know about the details of Pirates and who knows may just reward you with a license for the trouble -my2c-

        • @momov3: $200?!
          I've got a draw full of them, from machines we've since upgraded. Hell, I would've given you one.

          Never would've thought there was money in it. Spending $200 on an old sh.tbox sounds a little fruity, to put it politely.

  • Can you sign up with your university email but add the 1TB OneDrive storage to another pre-existing, personal account?

    • +3

      Unlikely. "Who manages the OneDrive account provided with this offer?
      This account is associated with the school and should be used for school-appropriate content, such as homework and schoolwork. Permissions and access can be changed by the school’s IT administrator at any time."

  • +42

    But next year has 366 days… What's going to happen to Microsoft Office 365 on Feb 29th??

    • +12

      Y2K

    • +1

      The world as we know it will implode.

  • +1

    This doesn't work for QUT.

    • +2

      Also doesn't work for UQ (University of Queensland).

      • Didn't qlands university's have this offer a few weeks back

      • +3

        Because we get to keep our email address for life. @uq.edu.au works though, if you're a staff or student with a staff account.

        • hey so what can we do as UQ students? is there no other option :(

        • @cool kid: Nothing I'm afraid. I think the university would have to pay for it (bulk licences) and I don't know if they have plans to do it.

        • @iSamurai:

          Aw ok, thanks for the info. Yea UQ is a money hungry SOB….its hilarious how much they worship profit and they try hard not to show it…

        • UQ could provision licences themselves if they already are office 365 users but they could of been doing that for 12months+ microsoft were disappointed with institutions take up of the free offer so they rolled it out as self service which is what this thread is about.

        • yep works for UQ. I got office on my work laptop anyway.

    • -1

      not for Monash either

    • +1

      I am not sure it's just my school, but my school has two id system (it might be from the fact that I left for 2 years or something to do with Office 365). The old ID system we used still work, I can send my emails to it, but it gets rejected by the eligibility test whereas the new one doesn't. So I think it might be worth the trouble to talk to the IT people of your uni.

      • Looks like this might be working for me with my student number email address from UQ instead of using my name email address. Great find!

        • as in this format? 4*******@uq.edu.au? because that ain't working for me :(

    • +1

      Works for UNSW.

    • Found this on the QUT IT website:

      "You may hear that Microsoft is making Office 365 products available for you to download using your QUT email address.
      QUT has not yet enabled this feature. We are assessing how we can best support your use of this software and will update you when new Office 365 features are available."

    • Also tried from QUT. Fail.

    • Here is the QUT page mentioning office365. http://www.itservices.qut.edu.au/student/email/about.jsp
      Unfortunately the only apps QUT has enabled is calendar and email, however I'm fairly sure they will be opening the other apps up soon to students and staff since its free.

    • No surprise there. Nothing ever works with QUT stuff. I know from experience.
      They will sell a subscription to you for $99 for four years if I remember correctly though.

      • Probably because no one bothers to read or search for IT related emails/announcements at QUT:

        You may hear that Microsoft is making its Office 365 products available for students and staff to download Office 2013 Pro Plus, Office 2011 for Mac and Office for iPad on your devices using your student or staff email address.

        The ability to make this software available to students and staff is made by each individual university and depends on a number of factors. QUT has not yet enabled this feature and is currently assessing the support required so that you can make best use of this software. We will let you know when new Office 365 features are available.

  • +2

    Sorry…

    We can't finish signing you up.

    Your IT department has turned off signup for Office 365 Education. Contact them to complete signup.

    Doesn't work for Utas either!, why would they block access to products that help their students?

    • +1

      Same thing for ECU. I'm not studying there anymore but I wonder if it's worth actually contacting IT to make this available.

    • +1

      see if you have another uni email acc. my normal didn't work but the second one did

    • I received the following message:

      Your IT department has turned off signup for Office 365 Education, but it looks like you already have access to some of the apps that come with Office 365 Education.
      We'll send you to the page where you can access them now.

      What does that mean?

    • +2

      It basically means that UTAS didn't pay the money to get the higher subscription tier (i.e. It costs more per user to allow access to the suite of Office programs.)

      You can see the comparison of business subscription models here:
      https://products.office.com/en-au/business/compare-more-offi…

      I would make a guess and say that UTAS went with the Office 365 Enterprise E1 subscription model, which doesn't allow offline Office programs.

      The OP should mention that not all 365 users will be eligible for the offer for this reason.

      EDIT: They may actually be using the free education version of 365, not sure if they qualify - https://products.office.com/en-au/academic/compare-office-36…

      • Thanks, only offerings are Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online and OneNote Online. Nothing available to download on another device.

      • +2

        No surprises there. UTAS wouldn't be able to afford it, because all their money is going into the chancellor's paycheck that's bigger than the PM's. At least we have Lync though.

  • Niiiice!

    Works for RMIT

    • Wow - was expecting it not to given it never has in the past.

  • -8

    While it is handy to know (and obviously good value) I'm not sure this is a 'deal' per se since for those institutions that have it available, it seems to be permanent. Happy to be corrected though.

    • +4

      Sorry for wasting your time

  • It's been 'setting up' for the last 20 mins or so…

    • Welcome to the world of Office 365 - where if a service isn't working, just try again later..

      FYI: This is legitimately the #1 response from tech support whenever you have any issues. And it fixes it. Sometimes..

      • Annnnnnnnnnd….. you're right!

        It works now lol….

      • Number 1 is actually "have you tried turning it on and off again?"

  • +1

    Works for usyd. Thanks

  • Seems to work for UNSW (zmail login)

    • Actually not sure if you can download the office suite… seems turned off by uni. Usyd works however.

  • +2

    You have my utmost appreciation for this post. I am recently a university student and forgot that I could get Office for free. Thank you!

    :EDIT: I am with James Cook University in Cairns.

    • +2

      no worries :)

  • works for unimelb

    • -1

      How come I am not able to use the [email protected] address?

      • Same here, not sure why it's not working. I'm getting the your IT department has not enabled it yet message.

      • needs to be a specific email address. i have two probably because somebody else has a similar one. the first one didn't work and came up with the message that the IT department didn't enable it yet. second time worked. you might have two emails, so try both

      • +2

        When you log in to the uni gmail account, click on your email address on the top right hand corner and then click on account in the popup. Under the Email heading, you will see all your alternate email addresses. Just try each one when logging into Office 365 and hopefully one of them will work.

  • +1

    Anyone know if this works for USQ?

    • Yep - instructions are going out during O week

      • What do USQ Student's need to do?

  • +1

    For all the ANUS out there, you can access this from the settings of the email account.

    • +17

      Come again?

      • +5

        Australian National University Students, or Staffs. What? I am a proud ANUS.

        • I heard ANUS are the best proctologists in the nation!

        • @Tasmaniac: You should come to our gym. They offer best equipment for those ANUS requiring exercise.

        • +1

          @Tasmaniac: Bit of a stretch. You really pushed to get that in.

        • -2

          I begin to get how AU can actually BAN use of Nuclear Energy, in AU.

          (See: Section 140A of Environment & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999" eg, over at AustLii.edu.au)

          End the BAN!

        • +1

          Back in first year, I was in Fenner School (not hall), and, as you do, got a hoodie for "ANU School of Environmental Studies".

          Took me a surprisingly long time to realise my hoodie said ANUSES.

    • +1

      Do you ANUS get any hardware discounts at all eg. Ainol tablets?

      • I wish did for us tight ANUS, sometimes it's hard to squeze money out…

        • How it got in there, is more of a concern!

        • @Utopian: I know, I know. Abbott screwed ANUS real good :( I wish they do "Protect our ANUS against Abbott" campaign or something :(

  • +1

    works for griffith

    • @griffith.edu.au

  • -1

    Didn't work for me…

  • finally free office for UWA!

  • +1

    At least in Queensland you can only access this if your school has moved to Office 365. All schools will move eventually, but for now its only schools that have opted in for the early transfer.

    • Education Queensland has Office Pro Plus available via that link for all students, regardless if the school has migrated to Office 365. It is the Microsoft Student Advantage Program. 5 devices can have it installed under the subscription.

  • Works for UNE

  • +1

    It works for ACU, Australian Catholic University. The format is SXXXXX(your Student ID)@myacu.edu.au
    Hope it helps others.

    • +1

      thanks fickre

  • Can anyone tell me the difference between Office 2010 and this? I bought Office 2010 for $110 on special, but wondering if it is worth upgrading if its free.

    Any ideas?

    • Free as long as you are a student, or staff member. Most of the time.

      Office 2010 (and Office 2013) is free for life.

      • +1

        SO the features are exactly the same?

        • No, whilst you are at uni you will always be updated with the most recent version of Office 365 (which is currently Office 2013, soon to be 2015).

          Once you leave uni, your Office install will become invalid and you must buy or subscribe to keep using Office on your devices.

        • +1

          No, not exactly the same. See for some differences: http://blogs.gartner.com/guy-creese/2012/07/17/office-2013-v…

          Also with PowerPoint 2013 you can make snazzy presentations hosted online with Office Mix: https://mix.office.com

        • @NeoM: "… you will always be updated with the most recent version of Office 365 (which is currently Office 2013, soon to be 2015)."

          Not sure if this is a pro or a con. ;)

          Then again, it'd be pretty hard for them to make anything worse than Office 2013.. Outlook 2013, in particular, was a massive step backwards!

        • @ryang:

          Outlook 2013, in particular, was a massive step backwards!

          In what way? I'm happily using it now.

        • @eug: My main beef with it is the searching. Outlook 2010 had it perfected, but for some reason an identical setup in 2013 is just terrible. Searches fail all the time, errors all over the place.

          I've also got clients who have Outlook 2013 crash on start-up every other day. Force quit brings it back most of the time. Very frustrating!

        • @ryang: Oh hmm, I wonder what happened. I've moved the whole office to 2013 and no one has had any problems with Outlook. No crashes or search problems. Maybe some other software is interfering?

        • @eug: Nah, nothing common between them except Exchange. Seems to just randomly rear it's ugly head.

  • +1

    Works for RMIT, downloading… Thanks Bellpop

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