I am a professor at Cambridge University and my application for github copilot is rejected because there is no place to upload documents

[mahrossi]

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Question

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Hi, I am a professor at Cambridge University (https://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/person/mr2102) and you keep rejecting my application for copilot because I am currently in Germany. I can upload a document showing why I am here, but in the application you only allow to take photos... can you please send me a link where I can upload such documentation so you can accept my application as I am quite sure I qualify?

[rushikesh-bobade]

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Hi @mahrossi!

Good news — as a Cambridge professor, you actually have the easiest possible path to approval, and you likely don't need to upload any documents at all.

The key: use your institutional email

If you apply at [education.github.com](https://education.github.com) using your @cam.ac.uk email address, GitHub's system automatically recognizes Cambridge University as a verified academic institution and should approve you without requiring any document upload. This bypasses the location check entirely — your email domain is the proof.

If you applied with a personal email (Gmail, etc.) instead, that's likely the root cause of the rejection.

Steps to fix it:

1. Go to [education.github.com/discount](https://education.github.com/discount)
2. Make sure your @cam.ac.uk email is added and verified in your GitHub account settings first
3. Select that email when applying
4. The system should recognize Cambridge automatically and approve within minutes

If you still need to submit documents, the workaround for the "photo only" limitation is to use the GitHub Mobile app — it gives you direct camera access and also accepts images from your photo library, so you can upload a saved PDF or scan.

For your specific situation (being physically in Germany), adding a brief note in the application that you're a visiting researcher is helpful, but with a verified @cam.ac.uk email it genuinely shouldn't matter.

Hope this gets you sorted quickly!

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