Like the vast majority of his fellow college students who own computers, Jason Chandler found that many math and statistics classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign require expensive software that might be used for just a single semester.

But under a new program being offered at U. of I., students such as Chandler, 24, will have another option: renting software.

Students this fall will be able to rent copies of some software at vastly reduced costs, in some cases as low as $25 for a term.

The U. of I. and Northwestern University are the first schools in the United States to offer the rental service campuswide.

The two schools have signed contracts allowing a Canadian company, e-academy, essentially to take over the sales and distribution of software on campus.

The company allows students and faculty to download the software from its Web site at vastly reduced prices through deals that either the company or the school have reached with software vendors.

The company also keeps track of the sometimes nightmarish task of making sure licenses are up to date and reminding customers when software expires. In the case of the U. of I., software bought for entire departments also will be managed by the company.

Company CEO Ram Raju said that whereas in the past only about 5 percent of students would purchase copies of some of the more expensive software needed for certain courses, as many as 80 percent of students will rent software if it is offered.

For students and even faculty, the savings can be substantial.

Chicago-based SPSS sells its statistical analysis software for $999 commercially. Students or faculty can buy the program at an academic rate of $599.

But a student can now rent the software for $39.99 a semester.

"Programs like SPSS are a lot more expensive than I'm willing to pay," said Chandler. "I'm used to using my own computer, so going to a computer lab was a pain. But I'd rent it, especially since you can just download it from the Web."

E-academy ensures that only university students or staff are allowed to download the software at the cheaper prices by requiring a valid campus computer log-in. And it uses encryption to stifle pirates.

While Raju admits that any encryption can be cracked, he said his service adds a level of protection beyond what most programs have. And the software has an internal clock that automatically stops working after a grace period once an expiration date arrives. That will lock a program from use, even if users attempt to cheat the system by turning back the clock in their own computers.

"It's not like there isn't piracy on campus already," Raju said. "This should reduce it. It's not going to increase it."

SPSS officials say they are confident e-academy's system will limit illegal copying. But at such low prices, they are hoping students would rather just spend the money for a legitimate copy.

"We think students are getting a steal," said SPSS spokeswoman Fiona McKenna.

Benjamin Cherry, 18, a student at Northwestern, said he expects some students will attempt to make illegal copies of the software, but he agreed that lowering the price could make that unnecessary.

"If you make it largely accessible for a nominal fee, I could see it being very attractive," said Cherry, of Downstate Charleston. Cherry said he would like to rent Flash, a program used on many Web sites and currently available through e-academy at a discount.

For the software makers, offering lower prices at schools can help create lifetime users of software and generate sales in the long run.

Currently, many of the programs offered are in statistics and math, but the company hopes eventually to offer graphics, engineering and other programs.

The company recently inked a deal to distribute Microsoft computer programming software to 2,000 schools.