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University Information Services
 

Who qualifies for a licence in the University's Microsoft tenancy

The University has signed up to a Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) contract. The licenses we purchase through this scheme are only for Collegiate University staff and students. People working solely for commercial entities outside of the University are not eligible.

UIS centrally purchases Microsoft 365 for staff in departments via the CHEST Software Subscription Fund. If colleges want to have licences in the UIS tenancy, they must pay for them separately.

 

Microsoft 365 licence levels

There are 3 licence levels under our EES agreement: A1, A3 and A5.

Find out what each licence level includes.

 

Licence allocation

  • Anyone with an active CRSid gets an account in Azure Active Directory (also known as Blue). This allows them to authenticate to applications they've been given permission to use. This applies to any suitably configured application, not just Microsoft 365.
  • All current students, as reported by CamSIS, get a Student A3 licence.
  • Most current staff, as reported by CHRIS, will automatically get an A3 license with a few getting an A1.
  • Users who are not licensed automatically by CamSIS or CHRIS will need a manual licence allocation. The eligibility criteria for this is currently being reviewed.

 

Microsoft volume activation

You can use volume activation to automate and manage the activation of Microsoft software across your institution. 

Read volume activation technical information

 

Client Access Licences (CALs)

As part of the University's Microsoft EES Agreement, the University and participating institutions are covered under the Core and Enterprise Client Access Licence (CAL) Suites.

CALs do not involve software installation or configuration. They are a legal entitlement and requirement. They allow Microsoft software on the client to access Microsoft software running on a server. Institutions must buy and handle the licenses needed for their server software.

Find out more about about Client Access Licences on Microsoft’s website

 

Perpetual Office 2019 licences

It is possible to buy a perpetual Office 2019 license. This allows the use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on a PC or Mac without users needing an Office 35 A3 license.

Please note: this version of Office does not have the same feature updates as the Microsoft 365 suite of apps. 

 

Office 365 bolt-ons

Some products are costed extras to the standard Microsoft Office 365 licence. These include:

  • Visio
  • Project
  • PowerBI Pro

UIS maintains a pool of licences for these products that is funded by the CHEST Software Subscriptions Fund. Departments can request licenses by submitting a request through the UIS Service Desk in HEAT.

Departments need to remember that the University still pays for the licenses. They must serve a genuine business need.

We will monitor the use of these bolt-on licences. If we find that a licence is not being used, the user's licence will be unassigned.

 

Teams Telephony

We've connected the UIS Microsoft 365 tenancy to the University's CallManager phone system. Users can request that their phone number is transferred from CallManager to Teams.

To request this, please contact phones@uis.cam.ac.uk with the CRSid and phone numbers to be migrated. Institutions will continue to pay the standard £5 telephone fee to UIS Telecoms. This fee helps support the Teams Telephony license.