<p>Microsoft has officially launched Student Advantage package, which gives students the multi-device Office 365 ProPlus suite for free if a school's teachers and faculty are paying customers.</p><p>Announced in October, the Office 365 Student Advantage package was made available to 35,000 educational institutions around the world earlier this week.</p><p>It sees Microsoft arming itself with a free full-featured Office product to help combat Google's free Google Apps for Education plus Chromebook assault on the education sector, and follows a Microsoft advertising campaign talking up the offline capabilities of its own platform on devices priced similarly to Google's own-brand laptops.</p><p>It's not in Microsoft's blood to give stuff away, so to qualify for the new Student Advantage deal, the school or university needs to have purchased for staff an "institution-wide" subscription to Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus, available through Microsoft's traditional volume licensing arrangements.</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-squares-up-to-google-in-the-school-yard-with-free-office-365-for-students-deal-7000023873/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/02/microsoft-rolls-out-student-advantage-giving-students-free-access-to-its-office-suite/">Microsoft Rolls Out Student Advantage, Giving Students Free Access To Its ...</a> (TechCrunch)</p><p><a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-office-free-students,25272.html">Microsoft Launches Student Advantage with Free Office Suite</a> (Tom's Hardware Guide)</p><p><a href="http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/12/02/microsoft-launches-student-advantage-worldwide-lets-teachers-bought-office-365-give-students-free/">Microsoft Launches Office 365 Student Advantage Worldwide</a> (The Next Web)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dGqpEOoy3E3_B2MoBmDlJqihXA83M&ned=us">22 additional articles.</a></p>