Can I use a student license if I am not currently enrolled in courses?

I have been accepted to a university for a master's degree, and I am learning MATLAB and reviewing other courses before I start it, which will be in Fall 2025. My university has a campus-wide license. Since I was accepted into the university, I have a student email address, even though I am not currently enrolled in any classes. Would I be able to use my university's campus access, or should I consider purchasing a home license?

[James Tursa]

Home License does not allow academic use. Use your university Academic License for academic work once you are enrolled. If you want a personal Student License, read my comments below.

Answer 1

[Umar]

Hi Alicia,

Congratulations on being accepted into a master's degree program at your university! It's great that you are proactively preparing for your courses, including learning MATLAB.

Given that your university has a campus-wide license for MATLAB, you may be able to access it even though you are not currently enrolled in any classes. Typically, universities provide access to software licenses like MATLAB to their students, faculty, and staff through campus-wide agreements. Since you have a student email address from the university, it is likely that you can take advantage of this campus-wide license for educational purposes. This means you may be able to use MATLAB on campus or potentially even access it remotely.

Before making a decision, it would be beneficial to confirm with your university's IT department or software licensing office regarding the specifics of the campus-wide license and whether it extends to students who are not currently enrolled in classes but have been accepted into programs. They can provide you with detailed information on how to access and use MATLAB under the university's license agreement.

Considering the cost implications, purchasing a home license for MATLAB may be an option if the university's license does not cover your current status as an accepted student. However, given that you will be starting your program in Fall 2025, it may be worth exploring the university's resources first to see if they meet your needs.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

[Alicia]

Thank you!!! I will speak with my advisor and the university's IT department.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

Officially, you can only use the Student license to complete course work. As you currently are not taking any courses, officially you cannot use a Student license.

That said: campus wide licenses are Academic licenses, not Student license. If your university is fine with you using the Academic license for the purpose of learning MATLAB ahead of time, then that should be within the license terms.

[Umar]

Hi Walter,

Thanks for your contribution. Really appreciate your input.

[James Tursa]

Is there a link to the full text of the Student license? I can't find it.

[Walter Roberson]

The Student license forms part of

ls(fullfile(matlabroot, 'license_agreement.txt'))

/MATLAB/license_agreement.txt

[James Tursa]

There is nothing in my license_agreement.txt file about a course work requirement for a Student License ... that text only appears for the Academic License. The only requirement for the Student License is that the student has to be enrolled in a qualified school. There are some caveats to that (must be degree granting, or primary or secondary school, or continuing education, or be a teacher, etc.), but the essential requirement is just enrollment. My interpretation of this is that as soon as you are enrolled in a qualified institution, you meet the requirements of the Student License. So, if the student decides to purchase a Student License they would be good to go as soon as they are enrolled. This is, of course, separate from the University Academic License requirements as you mention.

But back to the Academic License, the actual text in my license file is "...used solely in support of classroom instruction of students." I would argue that once enrolled and preparing for a class you are planning to take qualifies as "support of classroom instruction". Surely the license text was not meant to prohibit students from using MATLAB during slack times at school, such as between quarters, right? Why would it be interpreted to disqualify the time prepping for your first course?

Separately, comparing Student License to Home License. Student License is cheaper, but you will lose the right to use the s/w once you are no longer a student, so there is an expiration date on this license. Home License is more expensive, but once you have it you have it. However, Home License does not allow academic use, so not applicable for students using it for course work. I don't know if it is possible to convert a Student License to a Home License (with maybe a price difference adjustment), but this seems like a reasonable thing to be able to do once schooling is done.

[Vishnu Baldew]

Hi, I have a question (more actually) about "Home License does not allow academic use", what if a person buys the home license and in a couple of years the person starts a study again at a Academic University that offers a license. Can the person use his home license for his homework?

Second qustion: Perpetual means that if one buys a home license the person gets the next update for Matlab, so if the person has 2024a and 2024b comes out, the person may update his Matlab to get 2024b?

Third question: If the person works at a University, can the person use his home license for the university work? What if the University does not have a license?

Fourth question: If the person has an other job, not academic or commercial, just a plain job, may he use the home license for his work. For example he needs a graph to show some number or to calulate something.

I am currently a student, the pricing for a student are significantly lower than home use, but if you ar not enrolled anymore, you cannot use it anymore, so the money is down the drain. But I want to use Matlab at home for hobby and fun things to do. So, I need to buy the home license, does Matlab have dicounts for home licenses?

Kind regards,

[Walter Roberson]

@Vishnu Baldew

First answer: No. Home license is only for personal projects, and so cannot be used for academic work. Academic work requires handing in assignments, so academic work is not personal work.

Second answer: Perpetual license means that you are granted an indefinite license to use the version you bought . Home license includes one free year of Software Maintenance Service. When you have SMS, you ate entitled to free upgrades to any new version that come out during the term of your SMS coverage. Home license users can pay to renew their SMS after the first year.

Third answer: No, a Home license is for personal use only, and may not be used in support of employment at a University.

Fourth answer: No, a Home license is for personal use only, and may not be used in support of employment outside of Universities.

Fifth answer: Home licenses are already fairly discounted, priced about $US150 for the base product plus about $US45 per toolbox. Whereas a Standard license starts at $US2450, and varying prices for toolboxes, generally from $US1225 up to $US11700.

There is no discount available for moving from a Student license to a Home license.

[Vishnu Baldew]

@Walter Roberson

Thank you for answering, sincerely. One thing I do not fully get is the second answer, "an indefinite license to use the version you bought." How I interepret this is that if I buy 2024b, which will come with one year SMS coverage I can upgrade to every version that comes out within that one year coverage, meaning 2025b at the last. However when SMS stops after a year the latest version is the one I am stuck with and this one I can use perpetual. Am I thinking about this the right way?

Kind regards

[Walter Roberson]

@Vishnu Baldew

Yes, that is correct -- unless you renew SMS.

[Vishnu Baldew]

@Walter Roberson

Thank you, maybe you know about the answer to the other questions:

1) Add-ons can always be bought afterwards, but add-ons will not mean it will come with again one year of SMS coverage, or will it only com with SMS coverage for that add-on?

2) There are two version for Apple Silicone, one where rosetta is used and one where you need JAVA. There was a period were JAVA had a bad rep, meaning that there software was very hackable, is this the case also with the JAVA needed for Matlab.

3) If I buy 2024b, I can download it for all OS's, use is for one Mac only, but in the case I switch to another OS?

4) At this moment I am considering Matlab and than the "Matlab Product family" at this point, would you recommend the "Simulink Product Family." My use case is very basic, level is a BSc Applied Physics and for home use, because I want to keep my knowledge up with the books I have, meaning putting in math equations in Matlab.

kind regards.

[Walter Roberson]

1. I am nor sure about the SMS situation. I have a vague memory that when you purchase an odd-on, the SMS you have already paid (before add-on) covers the add-on for the rest of the term of the SMS... but I am not at all certain on this point.
2. The Apple Silicon native port requires https://www.mathworks.com/support/requirements/apple-silicon.html1 Java 11 JRE such as Amazon Corretto 11. I have not heard that it was especially hackable, but I do not work on that topic.
3. You purchase MATLAB for all OSs. However... Home licenses and Student licenses can only be installed on a single computer, and there are a limited number of times per year that you can transfer licenses. Now, in theory "single computer" allows you to dual-boot are use MATLAB on each of the OSs; in practice if you boot Windows or Linux then you might run into issues with MATLAB potentially not recognizing as the same system, so you might potentially need to get the assistance of Mathworks Support to run on the alternate OS.
4. For Applied Physics, I would recommend: Optimization Toolbox; Global Optimization Toolbox; Symbolic Mathematics Toolbox. Possibly Parallel Computing Toolbox (recognizing that you cannot use GPU on MacOS). Possibly PDE toolbox (personally I have almost never needed PDE toolbox, but some forms of Physics need it heavily.) Image Processing Toolbox turns out to come in handy. Beyond that, it depends a lot on what you are interested in; for example sometimes Applied Physics ends up getting heavily into signal processing and radio and communications systems. Or sometimes Simscape Multibody can be important for physics...

[Vishnu Baldew]

@Walter Roberson

Once again, sincerely thanks. This made it easy to know what to expect and what I need. Thank you and kind regards.

Vishnu