Microsoft Makes Changes to Its Office Offerings for Students

Microsoft has just made a series of changes to the way in which its Microsoft Office products are made available for students all around the world.

The main change here is the fact that, as of February 1st, 2012, the Office Academic SKU was replaced with the new Office University SKU.

The new Office University 2010 product comes with Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, and Office Web Apps.

In addition to making this modification, Microsoft also changed the validation process for the product, in an attempt to make sure that only students would be using the product.

Up until now, it has not been too much of a problem to get Office Academic even if you weren’t a student. All you had to do was to borrow the ID from someone, and you were set.

Following the new changes, it is a bit more difficult to trick the validation process. The product’s FAQ unveils that there is no validation key offered in the first place, and that students will need to provide the school email address, sign-in ID, or international student identity card (ISIC) to receive it.

The full changes that Microsoft announced for its Office for students offerings include:

- Office University 2010 and Office for Mac University 2011 were released on 1 February 2012. Office University 2010 and Office for Mac University 2011 offers university and college students great value for the same applications, services and support as Office Professional 2010 and Office for Mac Home & Business 2011. With the release of these products, we are dramatically increasing the number of partners able to assort the product.

- Office Home & Student 2010 is the current offering for school students and parents wishing to purchase Microsoft Office for their studies and home needs. This product is available from a wide range of retail and online partners.

- Office Professional Plus 2010 and Office for Mac 2011 under Student Select will no longer be available for purchase through this program starting 1 April 2012. This is the current program used by Software for Students and other partners currently who specialize in this market.

- Office offerings for students will remain, such as those available under Student Option for EES and Campus & School Agreement. A number of enhancements have already been introduced to make it more attractive for institutions to license their students under their institutional agreement, including free ESD and volume discounts.

The new Office University 2010 is available for purchase from Microsoft’s online store. Those who would like to learn some more info on the changes that Microsoft made to the product should read the FAQ page.

Microsoft Office is available for download from Softpedia as well.