Scottish government-negotiated free Microsoft Office licences for school pupils are set to expire at the beginning of August, as reported by the Scottish Herald. The A1 Plus licence will no longer be accessible to students.
Glow, Scotland’s digital learning support environment, has announced that Microsoft is making changes to its licences, meaning that users will no longer be able to download desktop applications through their Glow account starting from August 1, 2024. The Glow website states that users will also be unable to activate products like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint desktop apps using their Glow M365 credentials.
Glow serves as a platform for teachers and students, providing access to Microsoft and Google productivity tools to facilitate collaboration in education. Microsoft announced in August 2023 that the free A1 education licence, established in 2015, would no longer be available. Microsoft stated that A1 was created to simplify the transition to cloud services for IT departments.
“While the intention was to assist schools in their transition, it also introduced a level of complexity that led to compliance issues for our customers, with many unintentionally becoming non-compliant,” Microsoft explained.
The company emphasized that its Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 licences are easier to assign, addressing customer needs and the necessity for a transitional program.
As all existing Office 365 A1 Plus licences will expire on August 1, 2024, schools offering the A1 Plus licence will only have access to the online version of the Microsoft 365 product suite for free.
Reactions on X (formerly Twitter) to the Scottish Herald article indicate that teachers have not been informed of the changes and that the online version of the Microsoft suite can pose challenges when teaching certain subjects.
One X user commented: “While I understand that many colleagues are frustrated with the online versions being less effective/more cumbersome, there are subjects that cannot complete necessary coursework without the full version.” Subjects affected include admin & IT, computer science, and mathematics.
Although the article focused on Scotland, the changes Microsoft is implementing on August 1 will impact schools across the UK. However, Wales and England have framework agreements in place offering schools volume licensing discounts.
In 2019, the Welsh government signed a £1.2m deal with Microsoft, providing the full desktop version of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, including a Welsh language interface and proofing tools, as well as additional security features.
In 2024, Jisc, the UK’s digital, data, and technology agency focusing on tertiary education, research, and innovation, signed an Enrolment for Education Solutions (EES) framework agreement with Microsoft, covering schools, further education, and higher education institutions.
If online access to the Microsoft productivity suite is not suitable, schools across the UK that have not yet purchased either an A3 or the more expensive A5 licence will need to do so before the new academic year begins in September.
Based on costs provided by educational software vendors online, the A3 licence, which grants access to desktop versions of the Microsoft suite and security features, is priced at £2.50 per student and £2.85 per teacher. A user on the EduGeek forum mentioned, “We recently had to buy 250 A3 licences at over £2,500 per year. But what choice do we have?”
Schools with an existing Open Value Subscription (OVS) three-year rental agreement with Microsoft or the ESS commitment-based Microsoft Volume Licensing agreement may be eligible to receive the full Microsoft Office suite at no cost.
