Customers meeting the criteria below are eligible to acquire Microsoft Academic Edition (AE) products in the programs indicated and are defined as Qualified Educational Users:

All Microsoft eligible education customers must be located or reside in the United States. Qualified Educational Users are a those entities that both have an educational purpose or mission and meet the criteria specified below. If a controversy exists as to an organization's eligibility, Microsoft retains the right to determine in its sole discretion the eligibility of the organization for the specific transaction in question. The following are eligible to acquire Microsoft Academic Edition (AE) products in the programs indicated and are defined as Qualified Educational Users. 

A) Educational Institutions

1.   Defined as an accredited institution organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of teaching its enrolled students (“Educational Institutions”).   An accredited institution must be:

2.  A public or private K-12, vocational school, correspondence school, junior college, college, university, or scientific or technical school that is either institutionally accredited by an accrediting agency nationally recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education or, in the case of public K-12 institutions only, recognized or approved by the Department of Education of the State in which it is located.

B) Administrative Offices or Boards of Education

C) Full and Part Time Faculty & Staff

Defined as all full and part time faculty and staff of Educational Institutions. 

D) Full and Part Time Enrolled Students

* Academic Edition full packaged products 

* Academic Student Select

Special note regarding Hospitals, Healthcare Systems and Research Laboratories:

Hospitals, Healthcare Systems and Research Laboratories (including independent Research Laboratories or Research Laboratories affiliated with the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy) are NOT eligible to acquire Academic Edition (AE) products unless they are wholly owned and operated by a qualified Educational Institution as defined above in Section A. "Wholly owned and operated" means that the Educational Institution is the sole owner of said hospital, healthcare system or research laboratory and the only entity exercising control over said institution’s day-to-day operations. Additional information on determining if an entity is wholly owned and operated by an Educational Institution can be found by referring to the: Hospital definition (28 KB Microsoft Word document).

Non-accredited schools
Training Centers
Non-United States residents or educational facilities
Churches
Hospitals, Healthcare Systems, and Research Laboratories that do not meet the qualifications above
Non-profit/charitable organizations that do not meet the qualifications above