Unable to launch cloud shells due to "you dont have access" in student account

Question

Unable to launch cloud shells due to "you dont have access" in student account

Gonzalez, Jonathan 0

I just opened up my student account on azure, but I do not see my student subscription in my directory. Instead, I see my university's account. I only see azure for students in my subscription filter drop down. Is someone able to offer assistance?

Nathan Roberts (SN) 13,616 Reputation points Student Ambassador Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-17T18:49:56.1966667+00:00
Hey there, Gonzalez, Jonathan

Just so I know I am on the same page, so I can try and help you, please can you answer the following questions so I can try and help you:

When you completed the Azure Student sign-up form, did you sign into the form with your university email address?

When you sign into the Cost Management and Billing blade, here: https://portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_Azure_GTM/ModernBillingMenuBlade, do you see your Azure Student Subscription?

Which tenant are you in when you can see your Azure Student Subscription? (You can find this directly under your display name

I would always recommend signing into the Azure Student sign-up form with a personal Microsoft account. This allows you to either apply the subscription onto your tenant if you have already got one created, or create a new tenant with your personal Microsoft account.

This allows you to have full control over the tenant and the subscription. By signing in with a university account, you apply the Azure Student subscription to your universities tenant. The problem with this is that you are not in full control of this subscription or the tenant. This may lead to you not having access or having the ability to deploy resources if your permissions are removed. If you do sign-up using your university account to apply the subscription onto your universities tenant. Please seek permission from your university before doing this.

I know from experience, my university does not allow students to access the Azure portal. Some universities allow this but restrict it down for what students are able to do.

Thanks,
Nathan

1 answer

Your answer

Nathan Roberts (SN) 13,616 Reputation points Student Ambassador Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-17T18:49:56.1966667+00:00

Hey there, Gonzalez, Jonathan

Just so I know I am on the same page, so I can try and help you, please can you answer the following questions so I can try and help you:

When you completed the Azure Student sign-up form, did you sign into the form with your university email address?

When you sign into the Cost Management and Billing blade, here: https://portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_Azure_GTM/ModernBillingMenuBlade, do you see your Azure Student Subscription?

Which tenant are you in when you can see your Azure Student Subscription? (You can find this directly under your display name

I would always recommend signing into the Azure Student sign-up form with a personal Microsoft account. This allows you to either apply the subscription onto your tenant if you have already got one created, or create a new tenant with your personal Microsoft account.

This allows you to have full control over the tenant and the subscription. By signing in with a university account, you apply the Azure Student subscription to your universities tenant. The problem with this is that you are not in full control of this subscription or the tenant. This may lead to you not having access or having the ability to deploy resources if your permissions are removed. If you do sign-up using your university account to apply the subscription onto your universities tenant. Please seek permission from your university before doing this.

I know from experience, my university does not allow students to access the Azure portal. Some universities allow this but restrict it down for what students are able to do.

Thanks,
Nathan

Answer 1

Hey,

Good news, nothing is actually wrong here. What you're seeing is exactly how it's supposed to work, it just looks confusing the first time.

Here's the thing. Your student account is a school account, and school accounts live inside your university's directory. So when you activated Azure for Students with it, the subscription got created inside the university's directory too. You don't get your own separate directory as a student. That's why the portal shows your university's name at the top, and that part is completely normal.

And that "Azure for Students" you see in the subscription filter dropdown? That IS your student subscription. It exists, it activated fine, the portal is just filtering your view.

So do this: click the gear icon at the top of the portal, go to Directories + subscriptions, and under your university directory make sure Azure for Students is ticked in the subscription filter (or just hit select all). Then open the Subscriptions blade. If it still looks empty there, clear the filter at the top of that page too, there's usually a "Subscriptions equals..." filter quietly hiding things.

After that you should see Azure for Students listed with an active status, and you can start creating resources under it. The $100 credit and everything else is tied to that subscription.

One small heads up since it lives in the university's directory: your uni admins can have policies in place there, so if some specific thing gets blocked later (like creating certain resource types), that would be a university restriction, not an Azure problem. The subscription itself is still yours.

And just in case you tick everything and Azure for Students genuinely doesn't show up in any directory (check the directory switcher under your profile picture too), then it probably got activated under a different account than the one you're signed in with. Check which email got the Azure for Students welcome mail and sign in with exactly that one.

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-portal/set-preferences