Combining an MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise, and the Environment with coxing for OUBC's women's crew

Our graduate student and FirstRand Scholar, James Rumsey, spoke to us about his MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise, and the Environment and how he combines his studies, which he describes as ‘concentrated and comprehensive’, with his commitments as cox for OUBC’s Women’s Squad. The MSc is an intense experience but as James has been coxing for about 12 years, he is used to combining the commitments of his rowing with his academic responsibilities. Even so, with six days a week of training, often with early starts, he was looking forward to a break after the 2026 Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race when we spoke.

The teaching in James’s first term, Hilary 2025, focused on the issues facing sustainability and the environment and the role of enterprise in addressing the systemic problems. In the second term, the emphasis was more on identifying and evaluating potential solutions. This involved looking at the tools that are out there and at sustainable finance; while considering the question, how do we value nature? How can we incorporate nature into balance sheets?

James and his fellow students heard from UN directors, oil company board members, and captains of industry working in finance, climate, and nuclear fusion. Through these engagements, James developed his understanding of sustainability from different perspectives, non-government associations (NGOs) to industry, and in different geographic locations. As James described it, ‘…the course helps to you put these puzzles together for yourself, and see what you find most interesting, and where your expertises have the most leverage.’

For his thesis, James is considering the topic of capital allocation for energy infrastructure development, with a potential focus in Africa or Southern Africa. He is interested in the question of how the development and mainstreaming of AI and related data centre infastructure could shift energy demand and create opportunities for investment in renewable energy assets.

As an example, James is interested in energy transmission, in addition to generation. He explained that in some countries, including South Africa and the UK, companies are investing in generation without having the necessary access or investment in transmission. It creates significant tension in making investments in generation viable when there is this mismatch. As such, a windmill can generate energy but the problem of sustainable transmission, or getting it into our homes, remains.

As James explained, you can generate the energy in a clean way but if you are not thinking about the transmission, you may not be as sustainable as you think you are or would like to be.

Naturally, James hopes the MSc will lead on to a career in infrastructure investment, particularly in emerging economies. In rowing or when working on sustainability, you need to understand people who are all trying to achieve the same goal and draw on their strengths, whether in a class or in a boat.

James described how the MSc cohort learned from, and well as with, each other. The MSc cohort comprises 25 students from over seventeen countries. James sees parallels between the diversity of this group passionate about sustainability, and the diversity of boat race team. The question in the classroom or on the river is, how do we leverage each other to create the best pathway and achieve the greatest impact? As James says, in a boat, you have nine different people. You are all trying to win something, but you can go about it in different ways. You must draw on your expertise and communications skills to get the win. Similarly, effective communication is a huge issue with climate change. There are people who understand what is happening technically; but they may not be able to explain this or to encourage understanding and empathy from the public about the issues. It requires a special skill to take technical knowledge and make it accessible.

In either case, you’re “aligning people's strengths, understanding their weaknesses and their motivation, and seeing how you can have the biggest impact.” This understanding of team dynamics is crucial as the cox. People may think that if the cox is doing less physically, it means that they are less important in the boat, but James stresses that coxing involves understanding people and strategising how to build their confidence in themselves and as a team. “The crew would lose a huge amount of their impact on the water if they didn’t connect as a unit around one core goal,” James said.

We look forward to seeing how James applies his skills on the water, and in his future career.