Apple runs a higher education promotion every year that has traditionally been known as its “Back to School” sale. The company now refers to it as the “College Student Offer” or “Higher Education Offer” because it is only available to students in higher education and eligible education staff – not school-age children.
The promotion gives eligible customers an extra incentive when purchasing qualifying products through Apple’s Education Store, where Macs and iPads are already sold at discounted prices. In recent years, those incentives have included free AirPods, a free Apple Pencil, and other accessories. This year Apple has returned to the tradition of offering gift cards with purchases – worth up to $150 in 2026. Apple launches the offer at different times around the world to coincide with the university summer break in each region. It typically begins before the new academic year and runs until several weeks after the first term starts.
In 2025, the U.S. promotion began on June 17 and ran until September 30, so a similar launch date had been expected in 2026. Instead, Apple started the promotion on Thursday, July 16, a month later than expected, and originally announced it would end on August 27, a month earlier than in 2025. However, in early August, Apple extended it until September 24.
There had been some speculation that the offer might not return this year – particularly after the company increased Mac and iPad price, citing rising component costs and memory shortages, but Apple is going ahead with the deal. The same promotion is likely to start in the U.K. and Europe before the end of July.
Read on to find out everything you need to know about Apple’s Higher Education promotion this year, including when it is expected to begin in your region, what products and incentives may be included, who qualifies, and how to take advantage of the offer.
In North America, Apple’s annual “College Student Offer” promotion is live now. It started on Thursday, July 16, and finishes on September 24, 2026.
Because the academic summer break begins and ends later in Europe, the promotion is expected to launch in the U.K. and across Europe in mid-July. In 2025, for example, the offer began on July 10 and ended on October 21.
The deal ran from January 7 to early March 11 this year in the Southern Hemisphere. Similar timings are expected in 2027.
If you are enrolled at a higher education institution (post-K12 education, such as a university or college), or are the parent of a student who is enrolled, you qualify for Apple’s year-round education pricing as well as the “Back to School” promotion while it is running.
You will need to verify your eligibility before you can access the offer. Prior to May 2026, verifying student status in some countries – including the U.S. – only required an .edu email address and the name of a higher education institution. Apple has since tightened its verification requirements.
As a result, shoppers now need to verify their student status through UNiDAYS (as was already the case in the U.K.). Students are typically required to provide their name, date of birth, and school email address, then search for their institution and wait for their student status to be confirmed.
Apple’s education pricing is not available to parents buying for school-age children, but it is available to parents who are homeschooling their children.
The free AirPods usually given away with this offer have a value of $129, so the $150 or $100 voucher has an almost equivalent value to that. The gift card does give students the freedom to decide how they would like to spend the money.
Even before the gift card, typical savings in the education store include:
So the gift card represents a total saving of $350 for the MacBook Pro, $200 off the price of a MacBook Air, and $200 off an iPad Pro, and $150 off an iPad Air.