The basic tools may be free, but the more advanced things aren't. Many assignments require the use of packages like Matlab, Maple, and Pro/E - the idea being t

The basic tools may be free, but the more advanced things aren't. Many assignments require the use of packages like Matlab, Maple, and Pro/E - the idea being that we'll use these things in industry so we may as well get used to them in university. There are also a series of packages that are used that are free, but hard to find/maintain individually. It also comes down to standardization - if I'm marking circuit layouts, I want everyone to use the same version of Electric that I did, so it's easy for me to deal with fifty submissions. I want everyone to compile their code using the same environment, so that I can simply recreate that environment and know that the code should compile.