I completly understand you Mat, i'm lucky as uni have 7.0 I'm on 6 as that's what was out at the time, and I did most of my work at home so it wasnt really an issue. As far as I know autodesk (or the reseller to uni) didn't push an 8 upgarde and uni didn't see the advantage of upgrading so you might be lucky as they might not want to spend the extra money??

As for the reseller you might be lucky, as its a student licence?? but thats just speculation..