Abstract
Background:One of the benefits of online education is the potential reduction in carbon emissions through the decrease in travel toattenda universityin person.We estimated the savings in CO 2emissions ofan internationalcohort of master's students who studied fully online from their home countries, rather than travelling to the UK and living there while attending university. Methods:The city and country of residence ofa cohort ofstudents who first enrolled in the fully online Peoples-uni/Manchester Metropolitan University MPH programme betweenthe second semesterof 2011and the first semester 2013 were recorded. We estimated the aviation emissions between Manchester, UK and the cities where students reside, and subtracted the per capita emissions for the country of origin from the per capita emissions for the UK over the time that the student would have spent in Manchester as a full-time student, based on the semester in which they first enrolled. Results:128 students enrolled from 55 cities in 31 countries. 93 students werefroma range of African countriesand 18 from the Indian sub-continent. Flights to and from Manchester were estimated to have accountedfor 114,553kg of CO 2andliving in Manchester for the duration of their course compared with staying in the home country would have been equivalent to 854,904kg of CO 2. Thecombinednet savings was 969,457kg of CO 2. Conclusions:A smallcohortof overseas students,largely fromAfrica and India, studied online rather than attending university in the UK. The saving by this smallcohortofnearly amillion kg of CO 2emissions through not attending university in-personoffersan indicationof the potential environmentalbenefitsofoffering university education online to overseas students.
Highlights
One of the benefits of online education is the potential reduction in carbon emissions through the decrease in travel to attend a university in person
A retrospective cohort study explored the records in the Peoplesuni database of each of the students who first enrolled through Peoples-uni in the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Master of Public Health (MPH) award programme between the second semester of 2011 and the first semester of 2013
If net emissions are larger than zero, this implies the online MMU MPH programme creates an environmental benefit with a carbon footprint at home smaller than the footprint when living in Manchester combined with the air travel
Summary
One of the benefits of online education is the potential reduction in carbon emissions through the decrease in travel to attend a university in person. We estimated the savings in CO2 emissions of an international cohort of master’s students who studied fully online from their home countries, rather than travelling to the UK and living there while attending university. Methods: The city and country of residence of a cohort of students who first enrolled in the fully online Peoples-uni/Manchester Metropolitan University MPH programme between the second semester of 2011 and the first semester 2013 were recorded. Conclusions: A small cohort of overseas students, largely from Africa and India, studied online rather than attending university in the UK The saving by this small cohort of nearly a million kg of CO2 emissions version 3 (revision). This paper estimates the savings in CO2 emissions by this cohort of students who studied fully online from their home countries rather than travelling to and living in Manchester to attend the University in-person For four semesters between 2011 and 2013, a partnership allowed students to enrol in the Master of Public Health (MPH) offered by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) by solely online study through the Peoples-uni without travel to the UK.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
