Microsoft Launches 4-Yr Office 365 Subscription for Students

By Jane McEntegart
published

Works out at less than $2 per month for four years.

Microsoft has really been pushing its subscription-based Office 365 service and the company today announced a new subscription tier geared towards students. Announced via the Microsoft Office blog, the new subscription is available only to university and college students and is called Office 365 University.

Students will be able to purchase Office 365 University in the first quarter of 2013 when it will be offered online, at retail locations, and at Microsoft Stores in 52 markets around the world. The suite will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access and will last for four years. Students also have the option of renewing for another four years for a total of eight years. Students will get an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive storage (for a total of 27 GB) as well as 60 Skype world minutes per month. Priced at $80, it works out at just under $1.67 per month for the subscription.

Microsoft's Jevon Fark writes that both full- and part-time students at universities and colleges are eligible to purchase Office 365 University, as well as faculty and staff in accredited institutions. Going forward, students can buy Office University 2010 or Office University for Mac 2011 and receive a free subscription to Office 365 University when it becomes available.

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Jane McEntegart
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dameon51
    For those that don't want to mess around with Open Office, this is actually a really good deal.
    Reply
  • ankaj
    Does it include updates, if say they release the next version of office before the 4 years is up?
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    Or just use Google Docs. I use Office 365 and the only significant feature I need is Outlook due to the requirements of a specific customer (who could just as easily use web mail).
    Reply
  • infernocy
    there are way too many free stuff to buy office 365 ,, even office 2003 is still ok with everything ,
    what do you do in university , write essays , office 2003 is more than enough ...

    towards students ... the staff students do are still possible to do with tech from 10 years ago ...
    Reply
  • falchard
    IF your school is sponsored by Microsoft, you get Office 365 for free while in school.
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    I believe my school gets it for free. i'll have to check. Will buy, i like the demo.
    Reply
  • shafe88
    So what happens at the end of the 4 year subscription, can you continue to use office 365 or at the end of the 4 years does office 365 automatically deactivate forceing you to buy another subscription. I see no point in spending almost $80 for somthing I can get for free.
    Reply
  • phamhlam
    Does this still allow you to install on 5 computers?
    Reply
  • phamhlam
    phamhlamDoes this still allow you to install on 5 computers?
    It seems that your are limited to only 2 PC. It is perfect for me anyways. $160 for 8 years worth of Office is amazing. I use Excel VBA, Outlook, and OneNote a lot so this is amazing.
    Reply
  • phamhlam
    shafe88So what happens at the end of the 4 year subscription, can you continue to use office 365 or at the end of the 4 years does office 365 automatically deactivate forceing you to buy another subscription. I see no point in spending almost $80 for somthing I can get for free.
    You can get a legal copy of a full blown Office for free? There is not other program that has as much features as Office. This is for people who are heavily invested in Office. If you can live with G Docs or OpenOffice, then there is no point.
    Reply