Christopher Costigan

Christopher Costigan is Ravensbourne University London’s University Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer. In this role he is responsible for all aspects of board governance as well as academic governance, quality assurance and for the monitoring and management of the University’s compliance with a range of external regulators, including OfS, QAA, ESFA, Ofsted, UKVI, OIA and HESA. Christopher is also the University’s DPO.

Christopher started his career in HE as a law lecturer at BPP University in 2005, becoming a senior lecturer (2007) and then taking on module and programme leadership and concluding his academic career as Director of Study Abroad Programmes. During this time Christopher edited and co-wrote several textbooks on law and wrote a chapter in the first edition of Geach, N and Monaghan, C’s Dissenting Judgments in the Law. In 2011, Christopher moved into the university’s central leadership team and took on roles such as Director of Special Projects and Associate Dean (Partnerships). In those roles Christopher co-led the founding of BPP University’s School of Health; as well as establishing and executing a global partnership strategy. During that time, he also achieved a PGCert in the Management of International HE, and he still regularly sits on partnership approval panels for universities. In 2019, Christopher was appointed Dean of Academic Quality at BPP University and joined the executive team of the University and the senior leadership team of the BPP Education Group. In that role Christopher was responsible for governance, quality assurance and compliance with a range of regulatory regimes, including OfS, QAA, ESFA, Ofsted and the OIA across the BPP Education Group. During his tenure Christopher successfully led three ESFA audits, five Ofsted inspections (as nominee) and successfully wrote BPP University’s application for permanent degree awarding powers, the first University in the country to achieve this.

Outside of work Christopher is active in the higher education sector and sits on the board of trustees of the University College of Estate Management (since 2017), the board of directors of the University College of Osteopathy (since 2021), the audit and risk committee of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (since 2020), the Strategic Advisory Group (Governance) of Advance HE (Since 2021), and acts as an external observer of barrister qualifying sessions for the Council of the Inns of Court (since 2020). Previously, Christopher was Deputy Chair of the University of Salford Students’ Union (2017-18) and a Member (2010-2013) and subsequently Chair (2011-12) of an Independent Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police on LGBT issues.