3. Getting University approval for an expedition
| Rules: Approved expeditions must meet and abide by the rules set by the Oxford University Expeditions Council, available here.
Proposals: Expedition proposals must be submitted for consideration by the Council before a certain date in Michaelmas Term, sually in 6th Week. More details below… |
Oxford University has a good record of supporting expeditions, through a system of ‘approving’ and (often) contributing towards those thought worthwhile. Expeditions that are approved are allowed to refer to themselves as “Oxford University Expedition to …” , are often granted financial help, and may be granted further financial assistance subsequently in some circumstances.
The University has an Expeditions Council, including academics from several departments, which decides whether or not proposed expeditions deserve the University’s support. Their basic conditions for offering support are:
(i) The membership consists of at least 50% current members of the University;
(ii) The aims are worthwhile and the planning is such as to make it likely that the aims will be met;
(iii) Adequate safety precautions and medical provision have been demonstrated;
(iv) The proposed duration of the expedition in the field is at least five weeks.
(v) Any involvement of local participants follows ethical best practice approved by the University’s CUREC.
The Expeditions Council recommends to the University for approval those proposed expeditions which it believes meet the criteria. Once recognized, the Expedition is subject to a set of rules drawn up by the University, and must agree to be bound by them. You can find a copy of these rules here.
It is worth pointing out that one condition of being an “Oxford University Expedition” is that all expedition members at Oxford University must be members of OUEC. Another condition is that the Expedition must appoint a member of the University’s academic staff as Home Agent, that is, as a person who will be in Oxford when you are in the field and act as a point of contact, and that a Field Agent must also be named in the country you are visiting, whose role it is to be contactable from Oxford when you are in the field, and be likely to know how best to contact the Expedition in the field in an emergency. More details on these issues are included in the guide to writing a proposal.
Submitting a Proposal
| The Expeditions Council meets to decide on proposed expeditions in November of each year. To get an expedition approved, you need to produce a proposal for the expedition, and hand 14 copies of it to the Secretary of the Expeditions Council at the University Offices in Wellington Square, normally during 6th Week of Michaelmas Term each year.
n.b. late proposals won’t be accepted by the University, so please make sure you meet the deadline! For what the proposal should include, click here. All members of your proposed expedition will be interviewed together at some point in (probably) 7th Week. |
To help you fine-tune your expedition proposal beforehand, you can submit three copies of it to the Secretary of OUEC by Friday of 3rd Week of Michaelmas Term, and members of the OUEC committee will have a look over it informally, and contact you to suggest improvements you could make to it.
At the interview, you will be asked questions about your proposal, to clarify anything that might have been unclear and so that the Expeditions Council can satisfy yourself that you know where you are going, how you will get there and get around once you are there, how you are going to do your research, and that your plans are safe, practicable and worthwhile.
If your expedition is approved (and most are, though sometimes they’ll ask you to make changes), you need to undertake (in Hilary Term) a first-aid course with OUFAU, the Oxford University First Aid Unit. This is usually 4-8 hours for all members of the expedition, and they normally require a full 2-day course in Wilderness Medicine be taken by the member of the expedition who’ll be serving as medical officer. You’ll also need to arrange a medical consultation with the University Occupational Health Service, to discuss vaccines, malarial prophylaxis, and other potential health hazards, depending on which part of the world you’re going to.
To satisfy the University that you’ve had all that training, you need to complete a form which is countersigned by the University Occupational Health Service and OUFAU. It’ll be sent to you when your Expedition is approved, or alternatively you can download it as a PDF file here.
Approval is only the beginning!
You also need to be raising funding for your expedition, and you’ll find a lot of the deadlines are sooner than you might think. Of the major grant-providers, the Royal Geographical Society have a deadline is 25 January, the British Ecological Society of 31 January, and the BP Conservation Awards of 31 October, so it really pays to get organized as early as you can. You can find out more about getting funding by clicking here, and you can learn more about planning and preparing for your expedition by looking at the material we’ve gathered on general expedition planning and on particular issues.
Because expeditions are expensive, and because the Expeditions Council likes to fund them generously, it claws back any remaining money from the bank account of successful expeditions six months after they’ve returned. When you get approval, you’ll get a form that the expedition leader and treasurer need to sign and return: you can download the form in PDF format by clicking here.
OUEC is here to help, so if you have any queries or problems with any of the above, or any suggestions to improve this brief guide, then please do e-mail us, at ouec@herald.ox.ac.uk, and we’ll try and help.
