David Lloyd Owen

Jesus 1981, DPhil in Zoology

I run Envisager, a company that advises governments and corporate and financial sector clients about water policy and management.

After Oxford I joined the City as an equity analyst around the time of the 'Big Bang' and gradually moved from following telecommunications companies to environmental investment. I set up a boutique investment house covering the environmental sector and subsequently became an independent consultant making sense of the regulatory, environmental, competitive and political challenges that face water companies worldwide. 

I chose my degree course because the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology was the pre-eminent centre of research into avian ecology and behaviour.

Zoology, and my particular interest Applied Ecology, combines the intellectual rigour of a scientific education with acquiring the tools we need to address some of humanity's most pressing concerns. Issues such as sustainable development, population pressures and climate change are best tackled by understanding the processes involved, and the role sound scientific understanding ought to play in policy development.
 
Doctoral research is a unique level of academic attainment that translates well in a number challenging and rewarding career paths. To gain a DPhil at Oxford you need to make 'a meaningful contribution to human understanding' which means developing your ideas at length and in depth, and being able to defend them. Over three or four years, metaphorical mountains will be climbed as you cover your area of interest with an intensity you are unlikely to enjoy again. 

Colleges allow a day to day contact with the academic community and level of pastoral care that simply does not exist in a campus university. You are part of a community which exists to pursue a common intellectual aim. The size of the collegiate community means that there are few boundaries between undergraduates and postgraduates, which is not the experience at most universities. The cross fertilisation of ideas allows subjects to be addressed from fresh perspectives.

The Oxford experience is about using your initiative and drive to make the fullest use of the University's resources. It is not a spoon-fed experience, but one that encourages you to use your time to the fullest for your intellectual and personal development.
 
There are first rate libraries in your college, your department and the Bodleian meaning that access to books and journals are never an issue. Again, these resources can encourage the multi-disciplinary mind, not just a cheerful dilettantism.

As somebody who went to a third rate comprehensive and, after re-sits and clearing, finally taking wing at Liverpool University, I cannot praise my Oxford experience too highly for its building a sense of self-confidence and self-worth.  Yes, Oxford is elitist, but it is an elitism fostered by striving towards excellence in all things.