I just purchased a MBP with education discount in the UK at my local Apple store. There was a bit of confusion over this too. In the end it was discovered that as the purchase was educational the MBP was covered by a 3 year hardware warranty automatically without the need to purchase Apple Care. The additional cost of the Apple Care at educational discount, £48, only seemed to extend telephone support to a full 3 years. At first I didn't want this as the the most important thing was the hardware warranty and this was already included.
However as I was also purchasing a Cinema Display at the same time it was explained to me that if I did pay the £48 for MBP Apple Care I could tether the cinema display to that and the display would also be covered for 3 years for hardware defects.
With the educational discount on both the MBP and Cinema Display and cheap Apple Care for both it seemed like a good deal and I went with that.
