She has more than likely got office 365 for free via uni I have it will depend on what the uni use to run the email system.
Just to let you know both she and you are able to get Apple student discount. Another way to cut cost over than 2rd hand iPad is Apple own refurbished section on the Apple site they are cheeper and still come with full 12 month guarantee. On a side note she is also in able to have a NUS extra card.
I'd not trust for sure my uni work to anything cheep running MS. Don't be too bothered about applications running on anything other than MS machine as that long dead in the water. Been happily an all Apple house for years both me and Mrs 73 have done a fair bit of study and used them for work with no issues across multiple systems.
You can quite happily type on a tablet some better then others on an iPad it's seamless. Paired it with a bluetooth keyboard if you feel better using it that way. Ether way it will be fine. Remember to factor in any software you need on top of the machine price when you are looking round comparing. The other thing to think about is size and weight it's so easy to have a tablet on the desk in lessons or in the library than than a laptop. No need to pack to up if you just need to go off and get a book. You just walk off with it. I've used both iPads and my MacBook for studying and writing stuff up you don't really miss the days when you just have iPad. They also handy to have when teaching too no need to stand rooted to spot just walk around the room with it. Makes teacher more fun I find.
Only you can decide in the end just think about the practical bits the tech bits less so and remember cheep bits of plastic are cheep for a reason.
. It's another factor to add to the mix while I'm trying to decide whether to wipe this laptop and reload Windows 7 clean.
