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
Flights to and from Manchester were estimated to have accounted for 114,553kg of CO2 and living in Manchester for the duration of their course compared with staying in the home country would have been equivalent to 854,904kg of CO2
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 through not attending university in-person offers an indication of the potential environmental benefits of offering university education online to overseas students
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. 07 Sep 2021 report report report report. One of the benefits of online education is the potential reduction in carbon emissions through decreasing travel to attend university in person. 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.
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