There is an interesting thread over at SEO Chat regarding ideas for acquiring backlinks from .edu domains. As you are probably aware, links from schools and universities are difficult to obtain and valuable if you do (in terms of the importance passed to your page). So here is a quick summary of some of the ideas presented by Egol. Check out the thread for full details and more ideas.
Create credible, top-notch content that would be useful to teachers, professors, students, etc. For example:
- write an article on college life / programs of study and offer it to high school websites
- create "hometown" pages where you highlight academic, athletic and extra curricular features on students who are from specific geographic areas
- create a local info page that has links to campus jobs, music performances, campus lectures, etc.
- sites that have deep, authoritative info on topics such as study skills, career paths, things that would be of interest to students
- provide superb content - better than what the textbook publishers and disciplinary associations have on popular course topics. If you have that then professors might link to you from their course website.
- If you have a site that has lots of current info on local events and things to do and places to stay then this might be of interest to the admissions or student life or alumni pages.
These are just a few of the ideas from this thread, but it may be enough to get you thinking how you might obtain such valuable backlinks. If not, keep checking the thread for more ideas.