I want to move to a personal licence, as I will no longer be registered for a student licence. BUT I must PAY FOR AN ENTIRE NEW PACKAGE. I’ve used EndNote since before Clarivate even bought the product. I wanted to continue using it. Now I have second thoughts. Why should I buy the software again? Why isn’t there a discount for students who qualify and want to continue using the software? You are losing good clients.
I understand your frustration, having had similar situations in the past. What makes perfect sense from a new graduate’s perspective: “Let student users continue with their software” is generally unacceptable from a business’s perspective, which tends to be “We’ll hook students users with discounts when they are learning the software, and then capture the lost revenue later when they are out in the working world.”
The point of the software discounts to students and faculty is to build a user base who will then pay full price, ideally for the rest of their careers. This is the same for versions of MS Office and discounted computing equipment bought through college stores or school districts. Other consumer products also try to capture young customers, betting [often correctly] that the products people use when they are just starting out will be ones that are used for decades afterwards.
Do I like this practice? No. But convincing Clarivate to change course seems unlikely.
The alternative is not to give discounts to students…
Unless there is another way?
There is a stereotype active here - the assumption that every graduate is a young person with a career before them. There are also graduates who are studying in their mature years - or even in retirement.
So, if Clarivate were to introduce a social responsibility policy in support of Life Long Learning - at a minimal sacrifice to profit, but major benefit to the corporate image - then, the response may be different.
No stereotype. Usually you can get student discounts at any age if you are a student. I did so when doing my degree as a mature student. Now I am retired, I am a student again.
However, the point of companies doing student discounts is that the majority of students are young. That, or are older and changing careers to enter a new profession. Either way, they want people entering a profession or career to start with their software and then hopefully stay with it through their career.
It is an “introductory offer” if you will. Common for many things.
A social responsibility policy is not what it is about.