Microsoft education licensing: Volume Licensing agreements for education institutions

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Microsoft education licensing options

With the various discounts and licensing options available to students, teachers, and academic organizations, you can get more software, services, and solutions for your money.

Buying on behalf of an academic group, school, district, or institution? We offer these academic Volume License agreements. Here’s how they compare. For more details about Microsoft education licensing, click an agreement name.

	Enrollment for Education Solutions	Campus and School Agreement School Enrollment	Open License for Academic	Select Plus for Academic
Institution type
Higher Education	.		.	.
K-12 schools and districts	.	.	.	.
Institution size
5-249 computers	.	.	.
250+ computers	.	.	.	.
5+ Full-time equivalent (FTE) employees or students	.*
1,000+ FTE employees or students	.*
Agreement terms
Subscription license terms	.	.
Transactional license terms			.	.
Expiration date	1 or 3 years	1 or 3 years	2 years	none
Software Assurance benefit
Included	.	.
Available			.	.

* You may obtain subscription licenses through the Enrollment for Education Solutions in one of two ways, depending on the size of your organization:

Customers with as few as five Full-time Equivalent (FTE) employees or students (if choosing the Student Option) can license through an Authorized Education Reseller (AER) by signing the simplified Open Value Subscription Agreement for Education Solutions (OVS-ES), online eAgreement.
Larger customers with a minimum of 1,000 FTE employees (or students if choosing the Student Option) may also license through a Large Account Reseller (LAR) by signing the Campus and School Agreement and the Enrollment for Education Solutions.

How Volume Licensing programs work

By acquiring Microsoft education licensing through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs, you pay only for the software license—not the CD-ROM or DVD, user's guides, or packaging. Eliminating these physical costs and purchasing in volume can often reduce costs and provide more customized purchasing options and improved software management. Depending on the Volume Licensing program you choose, you may receive media, and you have the option to acquire media (or supplemental media), documentation, and product support separately, as needed.

License terms

There are two categories of Microsoft Volume Licensing agreements for academic customers:

Subscription. With subscription licensing programs, enrolled institutions have the right to run a selection of products, and any upgrades or downgrades of those products, for a designated term. For application, system, and Client Access License (CAL) products, even if the number of computers or users grows, enrollees remain fully licensed throughout their designated term and only need to report increases of their computers or full-time equivalent (FTE) employees on their annual order.

Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (for K–12 schools and Higher Education institutions)
Microsoft School Enrollment (for K–12 schools and preschools)

Transactional. With transactional Volume Licensing programs, customers acquire perpetual software licenses (meaning that the institution owns the licenses) while eliminating the costs and packaging of retail software.

Maintenance option

With some Volume Licensing programs, you may also purchase Software Assurance. (Software Assurance is included with Campus and School Agreements.) This comprehensive maintenance offering can help you get the most out of your software investment. It combines the latest software with phone support, partner services, training, and IT tools. You can choose Software Assurance at the time of purchase and begin using your benefits immediately for the term of your license agreement.

Read about Software Assurance

Purchasing options

To get the best combination of software, services, and solutions to meet your needs—and to get it for the best price—we suggest you contact a reseller that we’ve authorized to license our software. These resellers (also called “partners”) are specially trained to help academic customers identify the best license for your organization’s needs. If you need five or more licenses, a reseller can help you decide which of the agreements best fits your needs. Find a reseller in your area, or choose one online.