The WordPress.com Pupil Plan Is Right here: Give Your Scholars a Web site They Can Stay

These days at WordCamp US 2026, we’re formally launching WordPress.com Schooling.

At its center is a unfastened devoted Pupil Plan, constructed to provide scholars the equipment of a pro WordPress.com atmosphere whilst they be informed.

Now, scholars can construct genuine web pages in a qualified atmosphere that they may be able to stay the use of after the path ends.

We’ve been quietly piloting this for the previous yr, and it’s already reached greater than 5,000 lively scholars throughout 27 international locations. Now we’re able to open the doorways.

At WordCamp US 2025, Matt Mullenweg closed his keynote with a query: 

How will we give the following era the most productive equipment, so that they don’t have to put in writing with a borrowed pen?

That line is the entire reason why WordPress.com Schooling exists.

The Pupil Plan: Unfastened legitimate WordPress.com equipment

Any trainer can practice for his or her magnificence at wp.com/edu and get, for each scholar:

• An actual WordPress.com plan: The similar platform tens of millions of companies run on. No watered-down “scholar tier,” no limited plugin get right of entry to.
• A unfastened area identify: Scholars can check in a .weblog or .artwork area for free of charge (our two education-eligible TLDs for this preliminary section). 
• Plugin beef up: Scholars can set up plugins and lengthen their websites as a part of their coursework.
• The primary yr, utterly unfastened: No bank card required.

This isn’t a stripped-down lecture room model of WordPress.com. The Pupil Plan comprises plugin beef up, 6 GB of garage, backups, staging websites, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync. Scholars be informed and construct with most of the identical equipment they’ll come across running with WordPress professionally.

After yr one, renewal is simply $2/month ($24/yr) — a value that helps to keep the web site on-line and obtainable lengthy after the path ends.

That closing level issues greater than it will sound. This isn’t a throwaway magnificence challenge that disappears when the semester ends. It’s an actual site, on an actual area, {that a} scholar owns and will elevate right into a portfolio, a role utility, or their first freelance consumer — for not up to the cost of a espresso a month.

And although a scholar comes to a decision to not renew after the primary yr, not anything will get deleted. The web site merely drops to a unfastened WordPress.com plan on a unfastened subdomain, and each web page, put up, remark, and media record the scholar created remains precisely the place it’s, absolutely intact and on-line.

No countdown timer, no “pay or lose your paintings” ultimatum. The portfolio a scholar spent a semester development is theirs to stay, whether or not they renew or now not.

Why we constructed the Pupil Plan for genuine school rooms

Academics let us know the similar demanding situations arise time and again:

Setup takes too lengthy. Developing accounts, configuring websites, troubleshooting get right of entry to problems — all earlier than the real coursework even begins. WordPress.com handles the infrastructure so you’ll be able to focal point on instructing.

Scholars lose their paintings when the semester ends. Maximum lecture room equipment delete the whole lot as soon as the path closes. Motivated scholars who wish to stay development have nowhere to move. With WordPress.com Schooling, each scholar owns their web site and will stay it reside for $2/month — or take their content material with them, anytime.

Now not each scholar begins from the similar position. Scholars in under-resourced faculties or international locations ceaselessly face boundaries that restrict what they may be able to construct or get right of entry to on-line.

This program offers each scholar the similar professional-grade platform, the similar customized area, and the similar alternative to create an actual internet presence — regardless of the place they’re ranging from.

Getting ready scholars for the actual internet 

Schooling methods around the globe are rethinking what virtual literacy method within the age of AI. 

We predict the solution begins with possession — now not some other walled-garden device that disappears the instant a subscription lapses, however the open internet itself.

Scholars go away with a site they regulate, content material they personal, and sensible WordPress abilities constructed at the basics that energy over 40% of the web.

It’s already running: 5,000+ scholars, 27 international locations

WordPress.com Schooling has been operating effectively as a pilot program for the previous yr.

At IES Luís Seoane in Spain, advertising and marketing trainer Joaquín says giving scholars get right of entry to to WordPress.com from day one allows them to paintings in an actual atmosphere. Greater than 20 of this system’s 30 scholars went directly to internships, and employers have been “shocked by means of the extent our scholars carry—now not simply in search engine marketing and SEM technique, however in running with WordPress.”

I really like the ‘ceaselessly’ nature of this. My scholars can construct an actual portfolio that they may be able to stay and use after the path ends.

— Javier, Media Research Trainer, San Telmo Arts Faculty, Spain

Survey effects from pilot educators verify this:

• 88.9% stated WordPress wisdom, blended with this system, improves their scholars’ employability.
• 81.5% stated it improves their scholars’ entrepreneurial capability.

Actual abilities, on genuine infrastructure, translating into genuine results — internships, jobs, and the boldness to release one thing of their very own.

Development the bridge to the group

WordPress.com Schooling may be a bridge into the broader WordPress group. Past our personal lecture room program, we’re supporting two WordPress.org tasks with unfastened WordPress.com webhosting:

• WordPress Credit is a WordPress Basis program that companions with tutorial establishments to have interaction scholars in open supply contributions. We offer unfastened webhosting to individuals, and 150+ scholars have benefited to this point.
• WordPress Campus Attach is a WordPress.org initiative that brings native WordPress communities into upper schooling establishments via student-led occasions. WordPress.com has backed dozens of those occasions with unfastened webhosting for organizers and attendees.

It’s about transferring scholars from “I’ve a site” to “I’m a part of an international open supply group” and doing our section to support the techniques the broader WordPress challenge has already constructed.

Deliver WordPress.com for your lecture room 

WordPress.com Schooling is greater than unfastened webhosting. It’s a program that works along educators to organize scholars for the way forward for the open internet, serving to them retain possession in their content material whilst strengthening their employability and entrepreneurial abilities.

This comprises tasks similar to AI-assisted site advent, microcredentials, {and professional} certifications designed to construct sensible abilities, validate wisdom, and switch concepts into real-world alternatives.

Educators can practice to carry the Pupil Plan to their categories at wp.com/edu.

Should you’re a trainer, division head, or program coordinator who needs your scholars development genuine, lasting web pages they may be able to personal and develop — practice as of late.