MSDN Academic Alliance FAQ
1. What is the MSDN Academic Alliance?
The MSDN Academic Alliance is an annual membership program designed especially for academic labs, faculty, and students in the curriculum areas of Computer Science, Engineering, and Information Systems. The program has two primary goals: 1) to make it easier and less expensive for you to get Microsoft developer tools, platforms, and servers for instructional and research purposes and 2) to build a community of instructors who can share curriculum and other learning resources to support the use of these technologies.
2. Who may join the program?
This is a departmental program, rather than a school-wide program. Appropriate departments within accredited, not-for-profit academic and Publicly-funded institutions in Europe, Middle East and Africa are eligible to be members of the MSDN AA. The program is open to 3rd level colleges, universities and technical schools that meet the above criteria.
3. What is an "appropriate" department? Does this mean that this program is limited to certain named departments?
No, the program is not limited to departments that have certain names. In today's technological world, courses that use the resources offered in this program are offered in many different departments. An "appropriate" department would be a department that teaches Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information Systems oriented courses.
4. How long does a membership in this program last?
The membership will run from July-June annually and will cost €889, £559 (STG) or $799 (USD), per department per year to join. The program is designed to run concurrently with the standard academic year. Licences for product usage are perpetual.
5. What happens if we don't join the program until November? Does our membership still expire in June?
Yes. As this is a membership program, the membership runs from July through June regardless of when you join. If you join late your Welcome shipment will include any relevant back-issues you have missed.
6. How do we join the MSDN Academic Alliance?
You join the program by completing the registration and order form in the MSDN Academic Alliance brochure. This may be obtained by contacting the MSDN Information Centre, Monday to Friday, 9:00 -18:00 CET, at the following numbers:
Austria
0800 291193
Spain
900 972 906
France
0800 909129
Sweden
0200 214322
Germany
0800 1815190
Switzerland
0800 836726
Israel
1800 945 1103
Switzerland
0800 836725
Italy
800 780353
United Kingdom
0500 123536
Middle East and North Africa
+353 1 883 1012
All other
+353 1 8831014
The Netherlands
0800 0227261
Fax line
+353 1 8831013
7. How do we pay for the program?
You may pay either by cheque or by credit card. If you require a pro-forma invoice, simply return the order form without enclosing payment.
8. Do we have to pay value added tax on this program?
It depends on the regulations for your state/institution. We abide by the following guidelines:
EMEA except Germany, Norway and Switzerland: If the customer provides a valid VAT number, VAT will be charged at 0%, otherwise VAT at the normal rate for that country will apply. See price list for more details.
Germany, Norway and Switzerland: National VAT rate will apply.
9. What are the benefits of joining the program?
There are many benefits to this program.
You will receive the MSDN Academic Alliance software which is detailed in the next section.
The subscription includes a special license amendment to the standard MSDN End User License Agreement that grants you enhanced rights to load the software included in the subscription onto any number of departmental lab machines for instructional and research purposes only
The license amendment also enables students taking at least one credit course within your department to download the software to their personal machines for use in coursework and personal development projects
You will have access to the MSDN Academic Alliance Resource Web site with many resources for faculty teaching Computer Science, Engineering, and Info Systems courses
Tutorials, code samples, projects, academically focused white papers, case studies, and other content that is appropriate and useful
Regularly scheduled chats with our PSS technicians on various technologies
"Chat area" for faculties to communicate with one another
Project submission area where faculty can share and collaborate on projects
Special discounts and other offers specifically for faculty and students of member departments
Your program administrator will be entitled to 4 free Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) incidents.
10. What products/services are included in the MSDN Academic Alliance subscription?
Visual Studio
.NET Enterprise Servers
Includes Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, Commerce Server, BizTalk Server, Host Integration Server, Application Center Server, Systems Management Server
All Microsoft operating systems, SDKs, DDKs
Betas, new releases, updates
Visio
MSDN Library
Documentation, technical articles, code samples
Knowledge Base technical support library
Tech Support newsgroup for program administrator
Development tools for Windows CE
Monthly CD-based software shipments with updates.
11. Will the MSDN Academic Alliance subscription allow the program administrator to download software from Microsoft's XENA site?
XENA access is not offered to MSDN AA subscribers.
12. How will students be able to download the software to their personal machines?
Currently, students will be able to obtain software in two ways:
Your department may load it on a secure server and enable qualified students to download it directly from that server.
Your department may burn up to 50 copies of the CDs and create a "lending library" where students may check the software out from the lab or library and load it on their machine. Students may not keep the media, but must return it to the lab or library.
Your department will be responsible for having students agree to the terms of the EULA and License Amendment. A Student Use Template will be provided to you for this purpose.
We are currently investigating ways to enable students to directly download the software from centralized servers supported by Microsoft, so that option may be available in the future.
13. Is there any record keeping involved in this program for my department?
The only record keeping required is for you to report to us on a quarterly basis the number of lab machines on which you have loaded the software, the number of students who have downloaded the software and the number of students to whom you have loaned out CD's.
An e-mail reminder will be sent to the program administrator who will be able to fill out the information on the Web site.
This information will be used to better understand usage patterns of participating University Departments and to fine tune the program accordingly.
14. How regular will the updates be?
After your initial Welcome Kit, updates will be shipped monthly provided there are updates to be shipped each month. An e-mail will be sent to the Program Administrator each month indicating what is new and which CD's replace older versions in the subscription.
15. How will the Windows Activation Wizard work with Students installing at home?
A number of program keys will be shipped with the product. In addition, there will be a facility whereby the program administrator can request a further set quantity of product keys and may then distribute them to students as they borrow the media to install at home. The details of how to use this facility will be sent to the Program Administrators via e-mail.
16. Is the University responsible for students taking off the software once they have finished their course?
The University is responsible for informing students of the usage limitations defined by the MSDN AA licence. The University should remind students of the conditions of the licence periodically throughout the course.
17. Why are we limited to making 50 copies of the software?
It is not desirable to allow unlimited copying of Microsoft software as the uses of such copies would become unmanageable by the Department, so a practical limit of 50 copies has been set, which, we believe, will meet the needs of most Departments and represents excellent value for the price of the subscription.
18. Why is Microsoft Office Developer not included?
The focus of the MSDN Academic Alliance program is on providing Departments and Faculties with the tools and platforms that will cater for the needs of students who are engaged in specialized research and study with servers, technologies and tools.
With regard to Microsoft Office, specifically, the subscription will deliver the developer materials for Office but not the product itself.
19. Why can we not get access to other languages?
The program is being launched first in English. Other languages may be added in the future depending on demand.
20. Is Microsoft Services for Unix included in MSDN AA?
Yes. This means that students will be able to use Visual Studio to develop software to run on either Windows or Unix platforms and indeed to carry out comparative studies.
21. Do we get access to Beta software the same as MSDN Universal, and if so can we use it like all other MSDN AA software?
Beta products are provided as in MSDN Universal (with possible exceptions in line with the aims of the program). Under the EULA amendment these may be used in the same way as other MSDN AA software.
22. Is the subscription being sold directly by Microsoft or through resellers?
The subscription is available directly through Microsoft only.
23. Where can academic customers who are not eligible for MSDN Academic Alliance membership obtain more information on other academic programs?
24. Sun and Linux are charging nothing for their development tools - how can we call MSDN AA good value?
Sun and Linux lets the customer download off the web for free, but the MSDN Academic Alliance delivers developer tools, servers, and information on CD with monthly updates. The cost of the program covers the cost of this media, and our research tells us that program administrators prefer to have the media rather than having to download all the time.
Also, we are providing many more types of software--tools, platforms, servers and a knowledgebase. Linux only provides a platform and Java only provides one development tool.
25. In the Southern Hemisphere, the academic year runs from January to December, will the subscription year differ for South Africa, South America or Australia?
The subscription year will be the same as in the Northern Hemisphere.
26. When will the resource website be available?
The resource website will be up and running in August.
27. Will it be possible for customers to receive archive packs (out of year)?
During the subscription year, each quarter there will be a new Welcome Kit available to new customers. This will contain all the Software to date. So, if a school joins in September, they would get the July Welcome Kit plus the August and September updates, so they would have all the software. If a school joins in October, they will get the new October Welcome Kit which would have all the software.
Once the subscription year is over, it will not be possible to get archive packs from previous years.
28. Who is entitled to call PSS for the 4 incidents?
We have set it up so only the program administrator may call.