Schools hit with cost hike as free Microsoft licences end

Free Microsoft Office licences negotiated by the Scottish government for school pupils are set to end at the start of August, according to the Scottish Herald. The newspaper reported that the free A1 Plus licence will no longer be available to students.

Glow, Scotland’s digital environment to support learning, has posted a notice stating that Microsoft is implementing licence changes, which means that users will no longer be able to download the desktop applications through their Glow account from 1 August 2024. The Glow website states that users will also not be able to activate products such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint desktop apps using their Glow M365 credentials.

Glow effectively provides a portal for teachers and school children that gives access to the Microsoft and Google productivity suites to support collaboration in education. In August 2023, Microsoft said it would no longer offer the free A1 education licence, which was set up in 2015. At the time, Microsoft said A1 was aimed at easing the provisioning burden for IT of moving users to the cloud.

“While the intent was to help schools with their transition, it also introduced a level of complexity leading to compliance issues for our customers, with many inadvertently becoming noncompliant,” Microsoft said.

The company said that its Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 licences are easier to assign, both addressing customer requirements and the need for a transitional programme.

With all existing Office 365 A1 Plus licences expiring on 1 August 2024, schools offering the A1 Plus licence will only have access to the online version of the Microsoft 365 product suite for free. 

Responses on X (formerly Twitter) to the Scottish Herald article suggest that teachers have not been informed of the changes, and that the online version of the Microsoft suite can be a hindrance when teaching some subjects.

One X user wrote: “Whilst I appreciate many colleagues are frustrated that the online versions aren’t as good/more fiddly, there are subjects that cannot complete necessary coursework without the full version.” Subjects impacted include admin & IT, computer science and maths.

Although the article looked at the situation in Scotland, the changes being made by Microsoft on August 1st affects schools across the UK. But framework agreements are in place in Wales and England that offer schools volume licensing discounts.

In 2019, the Welsh government signed a four-year, £1.2m deal with Microsoft, covering the full desktop version of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, which includes a Welsh language interface and proofing tools, along with additional security features.

In 2024, Jisc, the UK’s digital, data and technology agency that focuses on tertiary education, research and innovation, signed a Enrolment for Education Solutions (EES) framework agreement with Microsoft, covering schools further education and higher education institutes.

If online access to the Microsoft productivity is not suitable, schools across the UK that have not yet purchased either A3 or the more expensive A5 licence will need to do so before the new year starts in September.

Looking at costs published by educational software providers on the web, the A3 licence, which provides access to the desktop versions of the Microsoft suite and security features, costs  £2.50 per pupil and £2.85 per teacher. One user on the EduGeek forum said: “We recently had to purchase 250 A3 licences at over £2,500 per annum. But what can you do?”

Those schools that have an existing Open Value Subscription (OVS) three-year rental agreement with Microsoft or the ESS commitment-based Microsoft Volume Licensing agreement may find they are entitled to receive the full Microsoft Office suite for free.