Apple Back to School sale: Southern Hemisphere deal starting soon

Apple holds a Back to School promotion (now known as the Higher Education Offer to avoid confusion) every year and it offers an incentive - until recently a set of AirPods - with purchases of qualifying Apple products.

However, in 2022 Apple stopped giving away AirPods to students. Instead, Apple began offering gift cards with qualifying purchases.

Back in 2022 Apple’s education offer kicked off in the U.S. on Friday, June 24 and ran until September 26. The same deal then launched in the U.K. and Europe where it ran from July 14 to October 20.

But Apple’s offer isn’t restricted to the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, where students are about to start a new term at university, the deal will soon be underway. So if you are based in that part of the world now is the time to take advantage!

In 2022 Apple kicked off the Higher Education Offer for Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Korea on January 6. It then ran until March 14, 2022. On that basis we can expect that Apple will launch a the deal around January 5, 2023. More on that below.

This education-focused deal is in addition to the year-long discounts Apple offers to students and education institutions on its Macs and iPads. We explain everything you need to know about getting a discount, including how much you can save as a student, and explain how to use Apple’s Education Store in this guide to shopping in the Apple Education Store.

You may also like to read our Apple student buying guide which evaluates the right devices for every level.

What’s Apple’s Back To School offer in 2023?

• Free gift card worth up to US$150 or £120 expected.
• AU$ deal to be announced.

In the summer of 2022 Apple offered vouchers for its Higher Education Deal. Apple also offers vouchers during its Black Friday shopping event, and just as with that deal there are different voucher values associated with different Apple products:

For summer 2022 students could:

• Buy an iPad Air (5th gen), iPad Pro 11-inch or 12.9-inch and get a $100/£80 Apple Gift Card.
• Buy a MacBook Air, 13-inch, 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro, or a 24-inch iMac and get a $150/£120 Apple Gift Card.

Vouchers do mean that those taking advantage of the deal get more choice about what they spend their money on, rather than being limited to headphones. The second-gen AirPods start at $129/£119, so if you buy a Mac, this year you can technically save more. However, in 2021, the AirPods started at $159/£159 and you could apply that price toward the purchase of AirPods Pro or AirPods Max.

All products sold to students via Apple’s Education Store include a discount, so you will already be making a saving on any of these products.

In addition, students can get 20 percent off AppleCare+ and a free month of both Apple Music and Apple TV+.

The terms and conditions of the deal are here (US)/(UK).

How to get Apple’s Back To School deal

As long as you based in an area where Apple is running the deal at the time of your purchase, and are a student in higher education, or about to start higher education, you can qualify for Apple’s Higher Education deal and get a free pair of AirPods (or vouchers if that’s what the deal is). There are more details about who the deal applies to below.

Note that if you qualify you are able to get discounts all year round by shopping in the Apple Education Store, so you don’t need to shop now to get a bargain.

Due to differences in when the school year starts around the globe Apple runs the promotion at different times in different places.

Apple runs the promotion in the southern hemisphere in the first few months of the year. Hence, if you live in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and South America you can take advantage of Apple’s deal from early January to March.

The same deal will run later in the year in the U.K., U.S., Canada and Europe. Usually between June and September in North America, and between July and October in Europe and the UK.

In the U.S. you’ll be able to visit Apple’s US Education Store, but logging on from your university network may make the process easier.

In the U.K. you can visit the UK Education Store, but you will also need to verify your student or staff status with UNiDAYS.

Go to the Apple Education Store for other regions using the links below:

• Australia
• New Zealand

When you make your purchase you will be able to request the Apple Gift Card.

Read on to find out the dates the deal will run in 2023.

When is Apple’s Back to School Sale 2023?

• In Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Korea the sale takes place between January and March. We expect Apple will release the details on Thursday January 5, 2023.
• Apple’s Higher Education Offer runs from end of June to end of September in the U.S. and Canada
• In the U.K. and Europe the deal usually runs from mid-July to October.

Apple Back to School Sale Australia/New Zealand/South America/South Korea 2023

• January 5 - March 13, 2023 - ESTIMATED

The dates in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and, South Korea correspond with the new school year there. In 2022 the deal ran from January 6-March 14, 2022. In 2021 the sale ran from January 7 to March 16.

Apple Back to School Sale U.S. & Canada dates 2023

• June 23 to September 25, 2023 - ESTIMATED

In 2022 the deal ran from June 24 to September 26. In 2021 the deal ran from June 17 to September 27. In 2020 Apple launched the U.S. sale on 15 June with an end date set for 29 September, although Apple ended up extending the end date to October 12 instead, moving it to just a day before Amazon’s Prime Day, which took place over October 13-14, 2020.

Apple’s education discounts are available all year round.

Visit the US Education Store and Canada Education Store for more information.

Apple Back to School Sale UK/Europe - dates 2023

• July 13 - October 21, 2023 - ESTIMATED

In 2022 Apple’s Higher Education Offer (aka Back to School Sale) started on July 14 in the U.K. Education Store. The sale ran until Monday, October 20. Apple U.K.’s Back to School Sale in 2020 started July 9 and lasted until October 29. It also launched its 2019 sale on July 9, and its 2018 sale started on July 12.

If this year’s deal isn’t running when you are considering making a purchase from Apple that’s no reason for disappointment: Apple’s education discounts are available all year round. Students and educators need to log in via UNiDAYS website to see the offers. Educational Store discounts are usually up to £280 for U.K. students. See Apple’s terms and conditions.

Who can get Apple’s Back to School deal?

If you are registered at a higher education facility (that’s post-K12 education, universities and colleges) you will qualify for the free AirPods deal as well as Apple usual education discount. Employees of these institutions can also qualify. If you are a parent buying for your student offspring then you can also qualify.

Alternatively, if you are an employee of a public or private K-12 institution/school in the US or Canada you are also eligible. Apple’s Education pricing isn’t available to parents with kids at school, but a homeschool teacher can qualify.

Even when Apple isn’t running the Back to School Deal students and education institutions can still take advantage of its standard educational pricing on its Educational Pricing page (US here/ UK here).

Which iPads are included in Apple’s Back to School deal?

Not every Apple product you can buy in the Education Store is included in the free AirPods deal.

We can get some idea of what will be included by looking at the previous year, while allowing for the fact that Apple doesn’t usually offer incentives to buy the newest Apple products.

In 2022, Apple included the following iPads:

• iPad Air (5th gen)
• iPad Pro 11-in
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch

This corresponded with the 2021 deal, where Apple included the iPad Pro and iPad Air in the Back To School offer. The iPad and iPad mini 5th generation were excluded from the offer.

You can still get discounted Educational Pricing on the iPad and iPad mini if you qualify, you just won’t be able to get the free voucher.

If you don’t qualify for the education pricing we have a separate guide on where to get the best deals on the iPad. For advice about which iPad to buy read which iPad is best for students.

Which Macs are included in Apple’s Back to School deal?

In 2022 in order to qualify for Apple’s Back to School AirPods you needed to buy one of the following Macs.

• MacBook Air
• 13-inch MacBook Pro
• 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro
• 24-inch iMac

You can already take advantage of education pricing for all of those Macs. In 2022 the Mac mini was excluded from the voucher offer.

If you don’t qualify for an education discount have a look at these round ups of the best deals on a new Mac:

• Best MacBook Pro deals
• MacBook Air deals
• Mac mini deals
• Best iMac deals
• Best Mac Studio deals

We also have this advice about which Mac is best for students.