Deals with companies give students a chance to work with the industry standard software like Alias' Maya.

Please describe recent initiatives with hardware/software companies aimed at making new technology more accessible to students.

Savannah College of Art and Design has initiatives with Alias, Apple, Avid, Hewlett Packard, Macromedia, RealViz and SideFX, to name a few.
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, Georgia

Maya PLE. However, in SE Asia, pirated software is so rampant that up-to-date versions of almost everything are available if you know where.
Intense Animation Studio
Singapore, Singapore

We have moved toward a Softimage Accredited Training center that will have Softimage integrated into our existing course and the purchase of the digital LunchBox -- but these aren't initiatives, really, more purchases.
CityVarsity Film & TV and Multimedia School
Cape Town, South Africa

Desktop tools such as editing, compositing and 3D animation applications have become much more accessible to students and institutions. Such software and the associated computing hardware enable courses such as our Graduate Diploma of Visual Effects to exist in a manner that allows equity of access to the students within the course.

There is, however, a tendency for the misinformed to associate the latest hardware and/or software with being equivalent to best practice.

Our approach to best practice is that of realizing the idea through the use of available tools to do the job in a professional manner.
Victorian College of the Arts
Southbank, Australia