1. The Basics
How do I set up an Expedition? How do I join an Expedition?
There are two ways to go on an Oxford University Expedition. You can organize one yourself, or you can join one that someone else has started.
Organizing one yourself gives you control over where you’re going, what you’re doing, what sort of environment and what sorts of questions you end up working on, and how you’re going to do it: the trade-off, of course, is that you will end up doing a lot of the work. Joining someone else’s expedition means that you get less choice over the how and where questions, but on the other hand, whilst you can expect to shoulder a fair share of the fundraising and fieldwork, you didn’t have to jump through all the hoops of setting up the expedition in the first place.
There isn’t a ‘best’ way of going on an expedition: people with different temperaments prefer to lead expeditions, to help set up but not actually to lead, or just to take part in, and work hard on, someone else’s expedition and thus enjoy the feeling of being part of a successful team.
It should be added that in many years it’s actually easier to organize an expedition yourself than it is to find an expedition that needs you especially - though if you have some special skills (if you’re a good field botanist, or herpetologist, or entomologist, for example) you may well find it relatively straightforward to find an expedition that wants you. Come along to meetings, e-mail us (contact details are as at the foot of this page) to put an advert on the website advertising your manifold skills, and talk to people who are planning and organizing expeditions.
OUEC likes to see lots of expeditions, and we do encourage people not to be frightened of leading expeditions! Most people who lead Oxford expeditions have never done anything similar before, or been in charge of anything like that before, and may well never do so again. You don’t need to be a special sort of person to organize and lead an expedition: you just need to have an idea for the sort of thing you want your expedition to do, and to be open to advice and to changing the focus and the methods as appropriate and necessary.
So, if you want to lead an expedition somewhere, the two most important questions you need to start by answering are “What do I want to do?” and “Where do I want to do it?”. If you’re not sure about either of those, get hold of a few old reports from Oxford expeditions (held by OUEC), or talk to people at meetings about where would be interesting places to work and what sorts of project are achievable and interesting. Often people discover from potential dissertation or project supervisors pieces of research which would make great University Expeditions as well as being academically excellent.
Once you’ve answered those questions, you can start thinking about planning your expedition. To start with, having a clear idea of what questions you need to answer in order to get your expedition off the ground is more important than having the answers. How will you get there? What methods do you propose to use? How long will you be in the field? Is it safe? Do you need a permit? All these questions can be answered, and necessary skills acquired in time, provided you start thinking about them at an early stage.
To get an expedition approved by the University (which brings all sorts of benefits), it needs to go through a special procedure in Michaelmas Term of the year before you want to actually be in the field: if you want to go on an expedition this summer, and it’s already February, then you’ll have to join someone else’s expedition because it’s too late to organize your own, though you could start organizing for the next year. You must write a proposal for the University’s Expeditions Council, a special committee of experienced academics and researchers, and submit it for consideration, and then be interviewed by the Expeditions Council to clarify any details and to ensure that you have a good understanding of what you propose to do and are likely to be able to do it. From then on, if you’re approved, it’s a question of raising the money, going on courses, sorting out the paperwork, and before you know it, you’ll be there!
