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.

[Matt Strickland]

I just want to ask other schools, 

If you do not have enough A3 licenses to cover the staff that use school owned devices you want full MDM management of,  do you purchase additional intune device-only licenses?

ie I am short of only a few licenses for staff that the ministry will not cover (decreased from last year) for which I move to an A1 license (sometimes with M365 Device apps) but this does not include an intune license.

Since they cannot be the primary owner of the device, they don't get any app or user conditional access protection policies, and cannot self update/install apps (Company Portal). I am forced to run these in shared/kiosk mode with no owner.

TL;DR: I can work with the number of A1/A3 licenses for the Office apps, but can't fit within that limit for Intune to keep the device primary user owned.

I've asked twice to reinstate last years quantity of licenses but I don't think ill get anywhere.

Matt

[Simon Wright]

Yeah, I'm maxed out on A3 and with the varied staff we have its frustrating. 

Surely we can pay for more over and above what the MoE are willing to?

Another 10 and I should be fine, this gives me a buffer as well, something they wouldn't allow.

Simon.

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[Jeffrey B]

It does seem particularly silly, schools are full of part time employees and shared teacher roles that generally need full licences to be managed sensibly.  However they are excluded and we need to go back to half measures or other solutions to manage users.  It's going right back to the issue that the original schools agreements were supposed to fix where schools end up resorting to messy workarounds instead of focusing on the unified solutions so workflows are more efficient.

---

From: techies-f...@googlegroups.com <techies-f...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Simon Wright <simon....@obhs.school.nz>
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2026 6:06:27 PM
To: techies-f...@googlegroups.com <techies-f...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [techies-for-schools] Re: Microsoft Licensing Update - A5 Unified

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/techies-for-schools/CAEJps9p_VGA5pQ0-qhGdsuSRoo%2BC8U5Vb9yy93u_kHS%2BtxSY2A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Matt Strickland]

Last year I could (just) assign licenses dynamically (by a staff user tag, company name rule etc) meaning all self managed and secure.

This year I can no longer do that - so I have half baked rules assigning staff student licenses or A1 with m365 App upgrade and trying to remember to manually ensure security of the device/software upgrade & policy.

And for me its about simplifying compliance policy to those users. If they are provided a school-owned device, and are employed by the school, they should be included no matter their position.

Manage My Health anyone?

Matt

[Ben Green]

We purchase through Cyclone Software additional subscription licences of:

* Microsoft Entra ID P1.

* Enterprise Mobility + Security A3 (for the two features: Entra ID P1 and Intune Plan 1).

Entra ID P1 is to make Conditional Access usage legal.

Intune Plan 1 is for Intune device primary user.

We grant each staff member one of:

* Microsoft 365 A3 (teachers and some support staff).

* combo of Office 365 A1 and EM+S A3 (other staff with allocated devices).

* combo of Office 365 A1 and Entra P1 (other staff that only use shared and/or personal devices).

* Office 365 A1 (temporary recent departure until mailbox etc dealt with).

Relative to the quota of A3 Faculty licences we're allowed, we purchase 90% of that number in Entra ID P1 licences, and 15% of that number in EM+S A3 licences.

You can also purchase through Cyclone Software additional Microsoft 365 A3 Faculty licences if desired.

Price-wise, if we spent the same $ on additional M365 A3 licences, we'd only have catered to 17% of the staff that we currently cater to by buying Entra ID and EM+S licences.

The above doesn't mention Defender Suite Edu for faculty or other app licences, for clarity.

I have suggested to MoE representatives that it would be more efficient to provide A3 licences for all staff with devices, instead of giving schools the administrative burden of managing edge cases as staff roles change. I have also tried talking to the wall; both were equally fruitful.

Ngā mihi,

Ben Green

---

From: techies-f...@googlegroups.com <techies-f...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Simon Wright <simon....@obhs.school.nz>

Sent: Saturday, 14 March 2026 6:06 pm

To: techies-f...@googlegroups.com <techies-f...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [techies-for-schools] Re: Microsoft Licensing Update - A5 Unified

Yeah, I'm maxed out on A3 and with the varied staff we have its frustrating. 

Surely we can pay for more over and above what the MoE are willing to?

Another 10 and I should be fine, this gives me a buffer as well, something they wouldn't allow.

Simon.

On Sat, 14 Mar 2026, 6:01 pm 'Matt Strickland' via Techies for schools, <techies-f...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I just want to ask other schools, 

If you do not have enough A3 licenses to cover the staff that use school owned devices you want full MDM management of,  do you purchase additional intune device-only licenses?

ie I am short of only a few licenses for staff that the ministry will not cover (decreased from last year) for which I move to an A1 license (sometimes with M365 Device apps) but this does not include an intune license.

Since they cannot be the primary owner of the device, they don't get any app or user conditional access protection policies, and cannot self update/install apps (Company Portal). I am forced to run these in shared/kiosk mode with no owner.

TL;DR: I can work with the number of A1/A3 licenses for the Office apps, but can't fit within that limit for Intune to keep the device primary user owned.

I've asked twice to reinstate last years quantity of licenses but I don't think ill get anywhere.

Matt

		Ben Green ICT Technician +64 3 348 5003 ext 207 Gre...@staff.cbhs.school.nz
www.cbhs.school.nz

[Matt Strickland]

Thanks Ben,

Just what I needed and thought some might be doing.

It also tells me that in your case, the A1 license (on its own) is of no use other than for leaving/left staff to retain mailbox/sharepoint/onedrive.

I'm fining it difficult exuding staff from trivial Conditional Access policies (like geo-fencing rules).

The ministry last year stated:

Microsoft 365 licences will continue to be allocated to schools based on Education Payroll data

Yet we didn't change, and we were not informed there would be a reduction.

It sounds like moving forward I will also need to purchase ~60% Entra ID P1 for compliance but only a handful of EMS+A3.

Matt

On Saturday, 14 March 2026 at 19:19:55 UTC+13 Ben - CBHS wrote:

We purchase through Cyclone Software additional subscription licences of:

* Microsoft Entra ID P1.

* Enterprise Mobility + Security A3 (for the two features: Entra ID P1 and Intune Plan 1).

Entra ID P1 is to make Conditional Access usage legal.

Intune Plan 1 is for Intune device primary user.

We grant each staff member one of:

* Microsoft 365 A3 (teachers and some support staff).

* combo of Office 365 A1 and EM+S A3 (other staff with allocated devices).

* combo of Office 365 A1 and Entra P1 (other staff that only use shared and/or personal devices).

* Office 365 A1 (temporary recent departure until mailbox etc dealt with).

Relative to the quota of A3 Faculty licences we're allowed, we purchase 90% of that number in Entra ID P1 licences, and 15% of that number in EM+S A3 licences.

You can also purchase through Cyclone Software additional Microsoft 365 A3 Faculty licences if desired.

Price-wise, if we spent the same $ on additional M365 A3 licences, we'd only have catered to 17% of the staff that we currently cater to by buying Entra ID and EM+S licences.

The above doesn't mention Defender Suite Edu for faculty or other app licences, for clarity.

I have suggested to MoE representatives that it would be more efficient to provide A3 licences for all staff with devices, instead of giving schools the administrative burden of managing edge cases as staff roles change. I have also tried talking to the wall; both were equally fruitful.

Ngā mihi,

Ben Green

---

[Paul Stephen]

Hi.

If you believe the number of licenses assigned to your school doesn't match your Payroll data for teaching staff please contact nzsc...@cyclone.co.nz and we can review these for you.  

Regards
Paul
NZ Government Sector Lead - Cyclone