Students can get Office 365 for free

Microsoft yesterday made it easier for school and university students to obtain a free subscription to Office 365 by sidestepping institutional IT and going to the self-serve line.

A year ago, the Redmond, Wash. technology company announced "Student Advantage," a program under which educational institutions that licensed Office Professional Plus 2013 or Office 365 ProPlus could also hand Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions to students, free of charge.

To participate in Student Advantage, school districts and universities must have licensed Office for staff and faculty institution-wide.  The main problem was how to actually get the software and proving who you are (ie. eligible student).

Yesterday, Microsoft removed that barrier by founding a self-serve process for students and parents. Students 13 or older can obtain Office 365 for free using only their school-assigned email address.

When the email address is entered into this form, Microsoft does an eligibility check. If the district or university meets the requirements -- again, it must have licensed Office for all faculty and staff via a volume license agreement -- and the student's email address is valid, the student or parent can download the latest version of Office for Windows PCs or Macs. Like most paid Office subscriptions, the free Student Advantage allows local installation on up to five PCs or Macs, activation of Office for iPad and one terabyte (1TB) of OneDrive storage space.