John Crosse

Magdalen College 1975, PPP

I am currently a leadership consultant, having joined the Royal Air Force Regiment after graduating – spending nearly 10 years in command and leadership roles in the UK and overseas – and then joining the police in 1985.

I started studying PPE but negotiated a switch to PPP after one term. I am eternally grateful to my tutors for allowing this flexibility. I chose PPE for all the wrong reasons: school, family, and friends thought I would be good at it! I changed to PPP because I wanted to study Physiology and Psychology, and was interested in their application to sport and leadership.

Within the three subjects that comprise PPP there is enormous scope for selecting topics that interest you, and avoiding those that do not! Moreover, in a range of leadership and management roles I have constantly made use of knowledge that I gained when studying these subjects.

Living and studying in a college provides the perfect blend of being part of one of the greatest academic institutions on the globe, while being supported and cared for pastorally in a large family.

Over the course of my degree I developed in a hundred ways: learning how to study, how to think, how to debate, how to write, how to be a self-starter, managing the balance between work and other interests, recognising that we each have a unique contribution to make, and many more.

I would summarise the unique benefits of Oxford by saying that the University values and develops the individual, whilst surrounded them by cutting-edge thought.

I have since studied at the Said Business School on the Common Purpose ‘What Next?’ Programme, and continue to be involved through the Magdalen Society, and with Oxbridge athletics through the Achilles Committee.