Dutch institutions of higher education have to meet stringent requirements for energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions imposed by the national government and through voluntary agreements on energy-efficiency. This exploratory study reports the relative contribution of student (and staff) travel to the carbon emissions of Dutch higher education institutions (HEIs) and examines the arguments for and against online education as a means to reduce the carbon impact of student travel. Data on carbon emissions using the greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol, published by HEIs, were gathered and analysed. A comparison with data from other countries is presented. It was found that the contribution of the so-called scope three emissions (travel related) to the total carbon footprint of the HEIs is between 40 and 90 percent at the Dutch HEIs that were investigated. Online education (80 percent or more digitalisation of the educational processes) greatly decreases the carbon impact of student and staff travel.

A series of interviews was held with HEI professionals of online education and ICT/sustainability. The interviews were analysed using the grounded theory approach. The professionals report as pros of online education its flexibility and power to personalise educational needs of individual students and the possibility to extend the learning environment with digital media. As an argument against online education professionals mention the non-committal behaviour of students. Only a few HEI professionals recognize the connection between online education and its potential for strongly reducing carbon emissions.

荷兰的高等教育机构必须满足国家政府对能源效率和减少碳排放的严格要求，并且必须通过自愿性能源效率协议。这项探索性研究报告了学生（和工作人员）旅行对荷兰高等教育机构（HEI）碳排放的相对贡献，并研究了支持和反对在线教育作为减少学生旅行碳影响的一种手段。收集并分析了由HEIs发布的使用温室气体（GHG）协议的碳排放数据。与其他国家的数据进行了比较。结果发现，在所调查的荷兰HEI中，所谓的范围三排放（与旅行有关）对HEI的总碳足迹的贡献在40％至90％之间。在线教育（教育过程的数字化程度达到80％或更多）大大降低了学生和工作人员差旅对碳排放的影响。

与在线教育和ICT /可持续性的HEI专业人士进行了一系列访谈。使用扎根理论方法对访谈进行了分析。专业人士表示，在线教育的优势在于其灵活和强大的能力，可以个性化个性化学生的教育需求，并可以通过数字媒体扩展学习环境。作为反对在线教育专业人士的一种论点，他们提到了学生的不拘一格行为。仅有少数HEI专业人员认识到在线教育与其潜在减少碳排放量之间的联系。