Apple has announced the official debut of its free iPhone Developer University Program. Currently available only to “accredited, higher education institutions in the United States,” the iPhone Developer University Program includes iPhone SDK, iPhone dev center resources, testing on iPhone and iPod touch, and internal or App Store deployment.

From Apple's Developer Connection page:

iPhone Developer University Program

The iPhone Developer University Program is a free program designed for higher education institutions looking to introduce curriculum for developing iPhone or iPod touch applications. The University Program provides a wealth of development resources, sophisticated tools for testing and debugging, and the ability to share applications within the same development team. Institutions can also submit applications for distribution in the App Store.

A Student Development Team can be comprised of as many as 200 students, Apple says. These students are to be guided by their instructors. Apple assures that students participating in this class will have everything they may need to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch, as Development Resources are always a top priority. The suite includes “sophisticated and elegant tools included in the iPhone SDK,” according to Apple, as well as resources typical to the iPhone Dev Center.

Testing, Debugging, and Optimizing will be done using (what else) Apple's own Xcode and its graphical debugger. Students will also be able to optimize their apps, by collecting real-time performance data in Instruments' timeline view. According to the company behind the Mac OS, “these powerful optimization tools allow for quick identification of any performance issues.”

Finally, Distributing the most successful apps resulted from this program will be also be handled by the students, making this class a complete guide to becoming a real developer. Students can opt for sharing their apps among each other via e-mail, post them on a private website, or even submit them to the famous App Store.

Registration is available here. Good luck!