Many colleges don’t provide institutional email IDs – students cannot claim GitHub Education benefits

[Manvanth-Gowda-M]

Hello GitHub Education Team,

I would like to raise an issue faced by many students, especially in countries like India.

The GitHub Student Developer Pack often requires verification using a college or school email ID (.edu or institutional domain). However, many colleges and universities do not provide official student email addresses.

Because of this, genuine students who only have a college ID card and admission proof are unable to claim the GitHub Education benefits.

This creates a barrier for students from institutions that do not issue academic email accounts, even though they are legitimate students.

Suggestions:

Allow verification using college ID cards + enrollment proof

Allow manual verification for students without institutional emails

Provide a country-specific verification option where educational emails are uncommon

GitHub tools and the Student Developer Pack help many students learn programming and development. Making the verification process more flexible would help students from many regions access these opportunities.

Thank you for considering this feedback.

[github-actions[bot]]

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