I guess at the end of the day the NSA want students in the US, who are likely US citizens and thus eligible for a job.
or you know, they could just open it for the public, given that there's such a wide gap in quality, cost, subsidy and affordability between higher education worldwide.
only after I stepped out the university bubble, I saw how unfair this "educational license" stuff really is. so many people who just can't afford to, so many people who don't have access to actual quality education (and don't want to throw money away just to get a piece of paper), so many smart people that spent years in "lower" (level) education (often family background not aiming high enough for their daughter/son) and then not qualifying for further funding (I'm seeing this a lot in the Netherlands, recently, it's really sad).
question is, what are you really selecting for by only accepting affiliation with an educational institution? who are you excluding and why?
(note: I put "lower" in quotes, because I feel everyone should in principle receive education to the best of their abilities. learning skills/knowledge/stuff is the goal and there's nothing wrong if that's not university-level. it's a wide world out there with so many beautiful different kinds of people)
Do you think there's much scope for abuse in terms of people using the licenses commercially without funding the company behind the product, though? As an example I'm considering JetBrains' IDEs, but I think the same concerns could be applied to a wide variety of products.
There's ISIC (International Student Identity Card) [1], but I don't imagine it's used widely.