Microsoft Licensing Update - A5 Unified

[Paul Stephen]

Kia ora,

 

The Ministry of Education is making changes to your Microsoft licensing, effective 1 January 2026. Your school will have 90 days from the 1^st of January to update their license assignments.

 

Staff Licensing

Your current Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 Unified Step-up licences will be replaced with M365 A3 and A5 Security Add-On licences.

 

Action Required:
You will need to reassign all existing A5 Unified Step-up licences to the new A5 Security Add-On licences.

 

Student Licensing

Student licences will change from Microsoft A5 Student Use Benefit to M365 A3 and A5 Security Add-on licences.

 

Action Required:
You will need to reassign existing A5 Student Use Benefit licences to both the new A3 and A5 Security Add-on Student Use licences.

 

Steps to Assign New Licences:

1. Log into your M365 portal and confirm you can view your Microsoft licensing.
2. Go to Users > Active Users.
3. Select the users you want to assign licences to.
4. Click Assign Licences.

Tip:You can assign licences to multiple users at once to save time. For detailed instructions, refer to the Microsoft Learn guide: Assign or unassign licences for users in the Microsoft 365 admin center - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn.

 

Summary of What A5 Unified Step-up includes that A3 + A5 Security Add-on Does Not:

• Compliance tools: eDiscovery Premium, Audit Premium, Records Management, Communication Compliance
• Analytics: Power BI Pro
• Voice & Calling: Teams Phone Standard, Audio Conferencing
• Governance: Customer Lockbox, advanced lifecycle management

You can review and compare the full feature set on M365maps.com

 

Need Help?

​If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact the Ministry of Education Software Help Desk:

• Email: nzsc...@cyclone.co.nz
• Phone: 0800 225 542 (Option 1)
• Hours: Weekdays, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM

 

Or your school’s Managed Service Provider

 

[Matt Strickland]

Happy New Year all,

Thought I would check my licences since I needed to re-enable a few leavers.

New for 1st Jan (what shows in the admin center):

* Microsoft 365 A3 for faculty (at less licences than previous)

* Microsoft Defender Suite Edu for faculty (also less licences as previous)

* Microsoft 365 A3 for student use benefit (same quantity)

* Microsoft Defender Suite Edu for student use benefits (same quantity)

I won't assign new licences as some will fail until I get the quantity sorted (I assume this has reset to some calculated quantity?)

The A5 licences are now expired and in a grace period.

Matt

[Paul Stephen]

The Ministry of Education has reduced license quantities for some schools for the 2026 renewal. Should additional licenses be required, requests may be submitted through the established process.