FAQ

Office 365 is now part of Microsoft 365.

At SFU, Microsoft 365 includes Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft OneDrive.

All current SFU faculty, staff and students are eligible to install Microsoft 365 for free on up to 5 individual-use devices, such as laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Note. The availability of the individual applications within M365 may vary, please refer to the application pages for more details on eligibility:

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft OneDrive

SFU retirees, emeritus and adjunct professors are eligible for Office 365 online to help facilitate working with the University community. This furnishes all the Office services, but does not allow for downloadable desktop installs of Office. The Office suite is still available in a browser.

Individual-use

Microsoft 365 is available to all current SFU faculty, staff, and students with a Microsoft 365 account.

Visit the Getting Started page for instructions on how to sign in to an SFU Microsoft 365 account and install M365 on your individual-use device.

University-managed

If you are an SFU faculty/staff and you hold a university-managed device, Office applications (but not M365) should be pre-installed on your device.

Please contact the IT Service Desk at it-servicedesk@sfu.ca or 778-782-8888 for any software inquiries/installations.

If you are an SFU faculty/staff and you hold a university-managed device, Office applications (but not M365) should be pre-installed on your device.

Please contact the IT Service Desk at it-servicedesk@sfu.ca or 778-782-8888 for any software inquiries/installations.

If you are being paid out of a research grant, you are not licensed to the faculty/staff downloads for Microsoft 365.

If you have just recently started a position, it may take time for HR to process your role change.

• You can check your current role and status by logging in to the SFU computing account directory and search for your SFU computing ID. 
• You will find your role(s) under the "Person" tab. If neither "faculty" or "staff" appears, contact your department regarding this issue.

Access to Microsoft 365 will be available as long as you are a current faculty, staff, or student. Once you are no longer eligible in this manner, your login ID will become invalid for the installed software on your device(s).

Note. Under the terms of Microsoft’s License Agreement, you are obligated to uninstall Microsoft applications when you are no longer eligible to receive Microsoft 365 for free. 

SFU's agreement for Microsoft 365 covers current students, faculty, and full-time continuing staff. Unfortunately, the additional cost for covering the entire University community (including retirees and emeritus professors) is prohibitive. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If your department needs to collaborate with you, it would be necessary for you to make arrangements to purchase the software, or to use the software on a computer physically located on campus. However, your status with the University as a retiree or emeritus professor also entitles you to education pricing directly from Microsoft.