Over 1 Million Students to Get Free Genuine Microsoft software

Microsoft Pakistan, in collaboration with HEC, has launched National Student Software Accessibility Portal (NSSA) – a service that will streamline software distribution to all students and faculty members of public sector universities under the Higher Education Commission (HEC) umbrella.

All public sector universities registered with the Higher Education Commission have been provided with a customizable Portal for licensed software distribution.

The portal consisting of around 150 software applications (from various categories including developer tools, operating system etc.) will enable over 1 million students and about 40,000 faculty members to download genuine Microsoft software.

How to Get Free Access to Genuine Microsoft Software?

If you are a student with any of HEC registered university then there is a chance that your next semester is going to start soon.

So as soon as you get to your campus, get to your Network Administrator/MSDNAA member to get your email address registered at NSSA portal.

You are likely to get the notification email (on the email that you had provided to network administrator) to complete registration process. Upon completion of registration process, you will be given a user name and password to log in on the webstore – where you will be able to download any software available on the webstore.

Here are few screenshots of Microsoft webstore a.ka. NSSA portal.

Launch event of NSSA:

The event to mark the launch of the NSSA portal was held at the Higher Education Commission’s head office in Islamabad and was attended by the Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Directors, and representatives from different universities from all over the country.

Commenting on this major development in the country’s higher education sector, Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan, said,

“Microsoft believes that Information and Communications Technology (ICT), combined with education, provides the path to individuals, communities and nations to achieve their potential. NSSA provides support for a comprehensive joint public/private implementation plan that will sustain Pakistan’s objective of achieving education excellence. It is aligned with the key strategic aims of transforming education, fostering local innovation and use of genuine software.”

Discussing the merits of the portal, Dr. Javaid R. Laghari, Chairperson Higher Education Commission, said,

“This is a great opportunity for institutions of higher learning in Pakistan to gain access to a broad spectrum of technology and enable the country to move towards a knowledge-based economy, ultimately benefiting the country through socioeconomic development. I would appreciate Microsoft’s commitment towards the development of the education sector of Pakistan.”

Since it is always fruitful for the state sector and private enterprise to work together to combine expertise, knowledge, experience and resources to ensure successful and sustainable education transformation, Microsoft has facilitated HEC to attain their goals by transforming education, fostering local innovation and creating jobs and opportunities through the Strategic Education Alliance.

Gracing the occasion, honorable Chief Guest Mr. Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Minister for Professional and Technical training praised the efforts of HEC and Microsoft in contributing towards the accessibility of genuine software to the academia through this platform.

The portal will further strengthen HEC’s stated objectives of equipping university students and faculty members with the latest technological access across Pakistan. The HEC is also committed to bridging the digital divide by bringing Pakistan at par with the developed nations of the world where technology enablement for the students is concerned.

It must be remembered that last year Microsoft and HEC entered into the agreement to provide centralized IT services to the universities and degree awarding institutes across Pakistan while maintaining the highest standards in the use of Information and Communication Technology across the higher education sector in Pakistan. The alliance consists of Faculty Connection, Microsoft Student Partner Program, Imagine Cup, Course Lab Integration, Student to Business interaction (S2B), .NET clubs and MSDN Academic Alliance.