Frequently Asked Questions

No – you can cover individual departments or units. Microsoft does require that you have a specific organizational unit however.

An FTE is someone who is employed by UBC and who will be using UBC owned computers to do University business.

  • Microsoft Office Professional
  • Windows OS Upgrade
  • Core CALS (Exchange, SharePoint, Windows Server)

The UBC Consolidated Campus agreement allows you to achieve top level discounts on the core desktop software package. However, if your department uses other products like Visio or Project, it may be cheaper to license them via Campus Agreement, even if not all your staff use the products. You can do this by licensing the other products under your own departmental or Faculty campus agreement. The reseller, Softchoice, can help you sign up for the agreement.

  • Microsoft Office Professional - $27.96
  • Windows OS Upgrade – $23.41
  • Core CALS (Exchange, SharePoint, Windows Server) - $12.21

All prices are before tax.

Right now the UBC Campus Agreement costs are paid by the departments who opt-in to the agreement. UBC IT does not apply a fee for managing the agreement on behalf of the campus.

Opt-in dates for the campus agreement are established through prior agreement with Microsoft, and usually occur April 1 each year. However, due to a number of departments with a combined FTE count of over 700 FTE's opting in, Microsoft has agreed to allow another mid-year opt-in of September 1. If your department or faculty is interested in joining the campus agreement, this would be a good opportunity. If you would like more information about the campus agreement, please email site-license@it.ubc.ca/.

The Windows portion of the campus agreement is not the full Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) version – it is an upgrade license. This means that when you buy a new PC you must buy an OEM version of the Windows OS, and then you upgrade to the Campus Agreement version. Therefore, it's best to get the lowest cost version of OEM installed - i.e. home edition, and then install Pro, or Business as an upgrade.

Every FTE that you cover under the campus agreement is entitled to home use rights of the Office software. The individual has to be included in the FTE count, and then you direct them to a Microsoft site where they can obtain the media. It costs them about $20 or $30 for the media to be sent to them. You can't distribute the Campus Agreement codes for individuals to install at home, unless it is a UBC owned machine located at their residence or home office.

Yes, you have to include Mac users in your count. However, Mac users benefit in 2 ways:

  1. The campus agreement covers Office for Mac
  2. Microsoft considers the Mac OS to be the base OS, thus allowing you to install Windows without having to purchase an additional OEM version