Can students still get office or 365 for free when school does not use Office or 365

[TwistedHelixis]

This is a primary school that is using Google Apps, we do have some office 2013 installs but we are pushing to go full Google soon. We have had a parent saying that all students can get office for free and she would like that for her child to use at home. As far as I can tell the free office software is only for schools enrolled in office 365, but wanted some clarification before moving forward.

 

Thanks

[hardtailstar]

our licensing allows students and staff to get office for a tenner.

 

Not sure if you can get it free but a tenner is probably cheapest they go.

[elsiegee40]

You are right, the parent is overly optimistic.

 

If you're not licensed for Office you can't benefit from the Home Use Program.

 

There's no national students-get-office-free programme

[jmak]

Maybe they've seen this:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/education/products/office/default.aspx

 

Get Office 365 for free!

 

It's not a trial! Students and teachers are eligible for Office 365 for Education which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint....

 

All you need is a valid school email address.

 

I think they're making changes to licensing, but the rumour I heard was that the offering to students was going to become more generous. When I last signed up, the offer only required you to have signed up for the free plan of Office 365 for education. Signing up for it doesn't mean you need to use it.... We have both Office 365 and Google Suite and don't currently use office 365.

[ellsandell]

Nothing stopping you signing up for a free Office 365 plan and then just offer it for Students. (From memory you can allow self-service to reduce IT involvment) Pretty sure quite a few people on here have done the same.

 

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Using-self-service-sign-up-in-your-organization-4f8712ff-9346-4c6c-bb63-a21ad7a62cbd

[AlanD]

No - I think you need to read carefully.

 

_Eligible_ students and staff can sign up....but the organisation needs to have licences because without them they will have limited functionality.

 

What is free is "Office Online" bit via a browser (I think) ....but that doesn't include "apps" which can create documents nor can you download 365 application for windows.

[ellsandell]

No - I think you need to read carefully.

 

_Eligible_ students and staff can sign up....but the organisation needs to have licences because without them they will have limited functionality.

 

What is free is "Office Online" bit via a browser (I think) ....but that doesn't include "apps" which can create documents nor can you download 365 application for windows.

 

Sorry I should have made it clear, sign up and get the licenses as you normally would and then allow the self-service?

 

Been a while since I last managed O365 lol.

[TwistedHelixis]

As we are moving in the Google direction I am going to recommend we either give the pupil a G-Suite for education login or as suggested above, use a free alternative like LibreOffice.

 

Thanks once again for everyone's help.

[TwistedHelixis]

As we are moving in the Google direction I am going to recommend we either give the pupil a G-Suite for education login or as suggested above, use a free alternative like LibreOffice.

Thanks once again for everyone's help.