Just to confirm, with iMacs on the Education store, you get the three year hardware warranty as standard and the Applecare uplift is just to upgrade the telephone support from one year to three, right?
I asked on live chat and the person I spoke to was adamant that without paying for Applecare I'd only be covered for one year by Apple (obviously in reality it's longer because of our statutory rights). But everywhere else online points to three years as standard, including in here, http://store.apple.com/Catalog/uk/Images/salespolicies_institutionHE.html
Edit ::
Whereabouts on the site is that?
That's right, 3 year for online or over the phone Edu Store purchases. If you buy from a retail shop using student discount, you get the standard 1 year.