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

As of late at WordCamp US 2026, we’re formally launching WordPress.com Schooling.

At its center is a loose devoted Pupil Plan, constructed to present scholars the gear of a pro WordPress.com surroundings whilst they be told.

Now, scholars can construct genuine web sites in a certified surroundings that they may be able to stay the use of after the direction ends.

We’ve been quietly piloting this for the previous yr, and it’s already reached greater than 5,000 energetic scholars throughout 27 nations. 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 gear, 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: Loose legit WordPress.com gear

Any instructor can practice for his or her elegance 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 admission to.
• A loose area identify: Scholars can sign up a .weblog or .artwork area for free of charge (our two education-eligible TLDs for this preliminary section). 
• Plugin enhance: Scholars can set up plugins and prolong their websites as a part of their coursework.
• The primary yr, utterly loose: No bank card required.

This isn’t a stripped-down lecture room model of WordPress.com. The Pupil Plan comprises plugin enhance, 6 GB of garage, backups, staging websites, SFTP/SSH, phpMyAdmin, and Studio Sync. Scholars be told and construct with lots of the similar gear they’ll stumble upon operating with WordPress professionally.

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

That remaining level issues greater than it will sound. This isn’t a throwaway elegance mission that disappears when the semester ends. It’s an actual web page, on an actual area, {that a} scholar owns and will elevate right into a portfolio, a task utility, or their first freelance shopper — for not up to the cost of a espresso a month.

And even supposing a scholar comes to a decision to not renew after the primary yr, not anything will get deleted. The website online merely drops to a loose WordPress.com plan on a loose subdomain, and each web page, publish, remark, and media report the coed created remains precisely the place it’s, totally 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 admission to problems — all prior to the real coursework even begins. WordPress.com handles the infrastructure so you’ll center of attention on instructing.

Scholars lose their paintings when the semester ends. Maximum lecture room gear delete the entirety as soon as the direction closes. Motivated scholars who wish to stay development have nowhere to head. With WordPress.com Schooling, each scholar owns their website online and will stay it reside for $2/month — or take their content material with them, anytime.

No longer each scholar begins from the similar position. Scholars in under-resourced faculties or nations steadily face boundaries that restrict what they may be able to construct or get admission to on-line.

This program provides 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.

Making ready scholars for the true internet 

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

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

Scholars go away with a website they keep watch over, content material they personal, and sensible WordPress talents constructed at the basics that energy over 40% of the web.

It’s already operating: 5,000+ scholars, 27 nations

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

At IES Luís Seoane in Spain, advertising and marketing instructor Joaquín says giving scholars get admission to to WordPress.com from day one permits them to paintings in an actual surroundings. Greater than 20 of this system’s 30 scholars went directly to internships, and employers had been “stunned by way of the extent our scholars carry—now not simply in search engine marketing and SEM technique, however in operating with WordPress.”

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

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

Survey effects from pilot educators verify this:

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

Actual talents, 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 could also be a bridge into the broader WordPress group. Past our personal lecture room program, we’re supporting two WordPress.org tasks with loose WordPress.com website hosting:

• WordPress Credit is a WordPress Basis program that companions with instructional establishments to have interaction scholars in open supply contributions. We offer loose website hosting to contributors, 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 thru student-led occasions. WordPress.com has subsidized dozens of those occasions with loose website hosting for organizers and attendees.

It’s about shifting scholars from “I’ve a web page” to “I’m a part of an international open supply group” and doing our phase to improve the techniques the broader WordPress mission has already constructed.

Convey WordPress.com on your lecture room 

WordPress.com Schooling is greater than loose website hosting. 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 talents.

This comprises tasks equivalent to AI-assisted web page introduction, microcredentials, {and professional} certifications designed to construct sensible talents, 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 instructor, division head, or program coordinator who desires your scholars development genuine, lasting web sites they may be able to personal and develop — practice nowadays.