Due to changes licencing of Adobe Software we will be unable to upgrade any of the Adobe Software the University uses in teaching to the latest versions for next academic year as originally planned. Instead we will continue to provide the version of all Adobe software which were in use during this academic year typically v CS6. A list of all software versions including the Adobe software is available here.
The reason for this is that Adobe have recently changed their licencing model and we cannot use our current concurrent licencing arrangements of individual Adobe applications e.g. Photoshop or for newer versions of the software. Instead Adobe have launched a new licensing models which will require the University to licence Adobe software in suites and pay for each PC they are installed on or use a site licence.
Unfortunately these options require us to get a lot of information as to what each department needs in terms of software and licence numbers, where the software needs to be installed etc. There are also logistical issues around how we would deploy the new software and how we would manage any restrictions about use of certain software by specific groups of students and they we expect them to cost more than the current arrangements. Gathering this information at this time of year; negotiating a deal with Adobe packaging and deploying the software is not in our view possible before term starts. So the project board overseeing the installation of software for next academic year has therefore decided to delay the move until we have that information.
This is a situation which is applies to the whole HE sector and as far as we are aware no comparable University has yet come to an agreement with Adobe so we believe that running CS6 versions of the software we be common across the sector next year.
My team will be in touch with academic departments over the next few months to discuss your departments needs for Adobe software and possible timescale for any software upgrade.
Nigel Williamson
Head of IT Support