Microsoft Campus Agreement

Owned by Andy Rainey
Last updated: Nov 24, 2021
3 min read

The Microsoft Campus Agreement provides licenses for specific Microsoft products like Office and Windows for most UA departments. Updates and upgrades are included in this agreement which is renewed annually.

What does it include?

  • Microsoft Office

    • Microsoft Office Professional Plus and Office for Mac

    • Includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, OneNote, Publisher, Web Apps, and Skype.

  • Microsoft Windows Operating System

    • Includes upgrade/downgrade rights only – a full license is required (see below for details)

  • Microsoft Core Client Access License (CAL) Suite

    • The CAL suite provides a license for users to access servers like Exchange, Windows Server, SharePoint, and more.

  • SQL Server CAL

What does it not include?

The Microsoft Campus Agreement includes access and maintenance to only the products outlined above, and only for eligible employees. All other Microsoft products can be obtained at varying costs through the Microsoft Select Agreement for departments, and Office for personal use can be obtained through Office 365.

Visual Studio Professional is not licensed through the Campus Agreement. Academic users, including academic computer labs, are eligible to access and install Visual Studio through the University’s Microsoft Imagine subscription at no cost, though there are very specific restrictions that must be followed.

Windows and Upgrades

The Campus Agreement only covers UPGRADES of Windows – departments must have purchased a qualifying full-version of Windows separately before the right to upgrade is available. Generally, this purchase comes in two forms:

  1. A preinstalled version of Windows when purchasing a new computer.

  2. Purchase of a full Windows license through retail.

Qualifying full-versions of Windows covered under the agreement include most versions of Windows. Apple’s OS X is also covered under this agreement as a qualifying version, including dual-boot scenarios. For an official list please contact the IT Service Desk.

Eligibility

Departments, Faculty, and Staff

Most University-owned computers are included in the license agreement, including

  • faculty and staff office computers

  • computers in labs

  • department-owned laptops

  • all other department-owned or leased computers on campus

Certain employees have been specifically excluded from the Agreement because the employees do not use University-owned computers and/or are considered “non-knowledge workers,” such as maintenance and grounds keeping staff.  These types of employees may be excluded if and only if they do not use institutional computers in the performance of job duties.

For more information or to determine if your department or staff are excluded, please contact the IT Service Desk.

Personal Use

Currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff can get Microsoft Office applications for personal use for FREE through Office 365.

Cost

Participation in the Microsoft Campus Agreement is provided to departments at no charge.  Departments may be requested to provide certain information required for the annual renewal.

Obtaining Software

For installation of products covered by the Microsoft Campus Agreement, contact the technical support group for your area. If your technical support is provided by OIT, or you do not know who your technical support group is, please send your request to the IT Service Desk.

Microsoft products not covered under the Campus Agreement can be purchased under the Microsoft Select Agreement.

Licensing Information & Restrictions

The annual license is for any version (i.e. rights to upgrade and downgrade) of the software packages offered for all University-owned computers, including computer labs, except for certain specifically excluded employees (see Eligibility section). Orders are placed annually based on the number of full-time equivalent employees, including graduate and undergraduate student employees, in each department. For counting purposes, a department is defined as a Banner Organization. Any new faculty or staff added during the year are automatically licensed for the current subscription year. Each subscription year runs from May 1 through April 30.

The license agreement allows the installation of any version of Microsoft Windows on a computer already running any other fully-licensed version of Windows or another qualifying operating system. For a list of qualifying operating systems, please contact the IT Service Desk. The agreement does not allow installation of Windows on a computer that was purchased without a Windows or other qualifying operating system license (i.e. upgrade rights only for Windows operating system).

Use of Campus Agreement software signifies a department’s acknowledgement and agreement to adhere to and comply with the terms and conditions of the program, the current enrollment, and the Master Agreement entered into and by Microsoft Licensing, GP and The University of Alabama on May 1, 2006.

Additional details regarding the Microsoft Campus Agreement Program can be found by visiting the Microsoft license site or the Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions License Guide.