Frequently Asked Questions about Faculty/Staff Free Microsoft Products

Note: While it is called Office 365 Education for Faculty, it is also available to our staff.

  • The Employee Advantage is a program that allows Ferris State University to offer Microsoft products to our employees at no additional cost. Office 365 Education for Faculty is a free Office 365 plan available to teachers at academic institutions that have purchased Office for faculty and staff. This plan allows teachers to install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access on up to 5 PCs or Macs and Office apps on other mobile devices including Android, iPad, and Windows tablets. The plan also includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, managed by the school. Teachers can edit and collaborate using Office Online, Yammer, and SharePoint sites.

  • Visit the page Directions for Downloading Office for Faculty/Staff and go over the step-by-step process.

  • Full- or part-time faculty and staff at qualifying schools are eligible if they:

    • Have a school-specific email address provided by the school (for example, ferris.edu) that can receive external email
    • Are of legal age to sign up for an online offer individually (13 years old)
    • Have Internet access

  • If you are eligible, you can use the plan as long as you work at the qualified school. Eligibility may be re-verified at any time. At expiration, the Office applications enter a reduced-functionality mode, which means documents can be viewed but it isn’t possible to edit or create new documents. In addition, online services associated with the school email address, for example Office Online and OneDrive, will no longer work. Upon leaving Ferris, the license agreement will automatically end and you will no longer be able to use the software. However, you will be able to purchase new software at that time through the Microsoft store.

  • Your download will include the latest Microsoft Office products for either PC or Mac. You will be offered the version based on what the computer you are using is, for example, Mac computer users will see the Mac titles/versions only. Products available include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and more. You will also be able to download these products on up to five PC or Mac computers as well as up to five mobile computing devices.

  • Yes, however, this will count towards the limit of installing it on five mobile computing devices. For more information on the mobile apps, visit the Microsoft Apps for Free page.