Middlesex Students' Union has been awarded runner-up for the national NUS Campaigns Award 2016.

The results were announced as part of the NUS Awards ceremony in Liverpool on Wednesday 6th July, which was attended by MDXSU elected Student Officers and staff.

The accolade places MDXSU second out of hundreds of students' unions nationwide in terms of impactful campaigns over the past twelve months, and was given in recognition of our #RefugeesWelcome campaign.

This is the first time MDXSU has been shortlisted for an NUS Award, and we are delighted to receive national acknowledgment for all those who worked to make the #RefugeesWelcome campaign such a success.

The campaign was launched in July 2015 by then MDXSU Vice President Sayed Alkadiri, and aimed to convince the local council to resettle fifty vulnerable Syrian refugees in our local borough of Barnet at a time when the Syrian refugee crisis was becoming increasingly desperate and yet governments across Europe were hesitant to take action.

This was truly a community partnership campaign, receiving involvement from seventy-five local businesses, schools, churches, mosques and synagogues alongside hundreds of individual students and local residents who pledged to help the refugees upon arrival - from offering English tutorials to mentoring vulnerable children.

In November 2015 Barnet Council voted unanimously in favour of resettling Syrian refugees locally - they were the first Conservative council in the UK to do so - and agreed to work collaboratively to find them housing and opportunities, helping them to make Barnet and Britain their home.

At the #nusawards in Liverpool. We've been shortlisted for the Campaigns Award for our #RefugeesWelcome campaign! 😊 pic.twitter.com/VjqMGCMyc7

— MDXSU (@MiddlesexSU) July 6, 2016

The #RefugeesWelcome campaign is something we're incredibly proud of, knowing that the work of elected Student Officers, Middlesex students and our local neighbours has genuinely and profoundly changed lives. You can view the shortlisted nomination and judge's comments here. Thank you to all those who have been involved in the campaign and the ongoing resettlement progress, and congratulations - our success at the NUS Awards is yours.

Further congratulations to City University London Students' Union, who pipped us to the top spot in the Campaigns Award category for their #righttopray campaign, which successfully established an institutionally-endorsed Friday Prayer on campus.

Alongside coming second for the Campaigns Award, we also received the NUS Green Impact Bronze Award for the second year running in recognition of our committment to sustainability. You can view the full results of all NUS Awards online here.

Reading this and feeling inspired? If you're a student at Middlesex University and are passionate about making a difference - whether in your course, your university or wider society - get in touch! Email us now at studentvoice@mdx.ac.uk, or submit your idea on our website for your fellow students to vote on.