New Enrollment for Academic Subscriptions

A new Enrollment for Education Solutions will be offered through Microsoft’s Campus and School Agreements, bringing changes to the way that discounts and eligibility are counted and additional licenses are purchased in academic institutions, especially for high school or lower grade levels. The changes begin Dec. 1, 2010, but will be phased in, with some customers having an option to remain on older agreements for up to three years.

Perpetual and Subscription Academic Licensing

Microsoft offers volume licenses to academic customers, at prices discounted 60% to 95% from what commercial customers pay, through both subscription and perpetual licensing programs. The perpetual licensing programs let customers purchase individual licenses through academic versions of the Select and Open volume licensing programs used for commercial volume licensing.

The current Campus and School Agreement (CASA) is an umbrella agreement under which academic customers sign a Campus Enrollment (for postsecondary institutions) or a School Enrollment (for high school or lower grade levels). CASA offers subscription licensing, in which customers do not purchase permanent licenses but instead subscribe to licenses for one or three years at a time. At the end of the subscription, if they want to continue using the software they must renew the subscription or buy out the licenses, converting them from subscription to perpetual licenses.