MDXSU's Highlights of 2015/16

Friday 08-07-2016 - 16:00
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As we say goodbye to our outgoing elected Student Officers and welcome in their successors, we've been thinking back over the past academic year.

 

2015/16 has been pretty huge for us, with some massive new events, incredible campaigns, blossoming societies and media platforms, and more students than ever before actively shaping their university experience - and the wider world too!

 

These achievements are testament to this year's amazing team of Student Officers - your President Aman Siddiqi, and Vice Presidents André Thompson, Orla Hillary and Sayed Alkadiri - as well as the hard work of Middlesex students and our staff team too!

 

So what have we done for you in the past year? We've managed to whittle down the list to a top twenty, so without further ado - and in no particular order - MDXSU present our highlights of 2015/16!

 

1. Getting microwaves on campus!

Yep, you read it right. We know that having microwaves for student use on campus would be a real benefit for lots of you for lots of reasons, and it's something your elected Student Officers have been campaigning for for some time. We're excited to announce that the university have now agreed to install a microwave in the Servery Cafe in the new Ritterman building which opens at the end of September!

 

2. Our record-breaking elections turnout

2,289 students voted to decide who will lead Middlesex Students’ Union in 2016/17, making it the largest turnout in MDXSU history. You elected Simba, Katie and Joe, and re-elected current Vice President Orla. They have now started in their posts as of the start of July - more from them soon!

 

3. MDXSU Summer Fest

Our 15/16 social calendar started with a packed Freshers' programme - featuring an outdoor cinema, shisha nights and a party on a boat - and ends with Graduation Ball next week, with lots of MDXSU clubnights and society parties in between. However, our biggest event of the year - taking over the whole campus and attracting 1,000 guests - was MDXSU Summer Fest! From the fairground ride and silent disco to watching WSTRN perform, it was an incredible night - even if it did rain a little bit...

 

4. Successfully campaigning for fifty vulnerable Syrian refugees to be resettled in our local borough

MDXSU Vice President Sayed launched our #RefugeesWelcome campaign in July 2015 with the aim of raising awareness of the refugee crisis and convincing Barnet Council to rehome fifty Syrian refugees in our local borough. Following months of lobbying, the council agreed to the request in October 2015 - and the campaign also received national recognition when MDXSU was placed second in the country in the national NUS Campaigns Award.

 

5. POW! Magazine winning a national award

POW! Mag may be relatively new on the student magazine scene - springing into life in September 2014 - but that didn't stop them being awarded Best Design at the Student Publication Association (SPA) Awards this year!


6. The university committing to paying all staff the London Living Wage

We have been paying all our staff the London Living Wage since 2013 and so were delighted when, after a campaign by Unison, UCU and MDXSU, Middlesex University followed our example and committed to paying all staff the London Living Wage from January 2017. Our Vice President 15/16 Sayed Alkadiri spoke to the staff that this would impact:

 

7. Hearing about incredible teaching and partnership at our annual MDXSU Teaching Awards

This year we received an incredible 1,300 nominations from students praising amazing teaching and support staff at Middlesex, with six awards presented to winning staff members at the ceremony in April. Click here for a recap!

 

8. Making students heard in the university's strategic refresh

MDXSU has been fully involved in Middlesex University's strategic refresh, successfully proposing policy changes on the way we are taught - for teaching to be more in partnership with students, making our education really student-led. We will be working with the university on student-led prospectuses, greater student involvement in designing the curriculum and more peer to peer learning and marking.

 

9. Making friends with reindeers on campus

We loved getting into the festive spirit at our MDXmas Market last December, featuring a life-sized snowglobe, market stalls, live performances, sweet treats and some very friendly reindeer!

 

Show us your #MDXmas pics! 🎄

A photo posted by Middlesex Uni Students' Union (@mdxsu) on

 

10. Celebrating the achievements of Middlesex students at the MDXSU Awards

As well as smashing your degrees, you guys also somehow find the time to campaign, fundraise, lead societies, put on events, host exhibitions, captain teams, represent your coursemates and more. You are GREAT. You can read about this year's student winners here.

11. Working with our incredible interns!

We launched our intern programme a few years ago, giving students the chance to gain experience alongside their studies while earning the London Living Wage - currently £9.80 per hour. Our interns play a vital role in helping us deliver opportunities and events, so we're excited to be employing over thirty interns in 2016/17, alongside student staff and our Welcome Desk team.

"It's the most rewarding and fun job ever and it's great getting other students involved in everything that the Students' Union does."
Jess Hawke, MDXSU Student Voice Intern 2015/16

"This is probably the best job that I've had for actual, valuable experience in the workplace. Working on events is what I'm doing now in my job, so the [internship at MDXSU] actually led me to get a job full-time after graduation - I don't think I would have got it without it!
Anya Walsh, MDXSU Course-Based Opportunities Intern 2015/16

 

12. Building a village

This year's MDXSU Shouting for Housing campaign saw students not only build a village in Grove, but also contribute to the Citizens housing manifesto which was agreed to by London mayoral candidates, and bring over 100 students to the Citizens Mayoral Assembly at the Copper Box in April.

 

13. Meeting some incredible employers

Alongside the successful NatSoc Science & Technology Career Expo - back for it's second year - our amazing student interns (see point 11!) also put on Middlesex's first ever Business and Law and Creative Careers Fairs, helping hook students up with a range of graduate and internship opportunities and employability tips.

 

14. Launching our brand new free mobile app

We were incredibly proud to launch our free MDXSU App in September 2015, giving students a useful tool for keeping up to date with events, sharing their views in polls and contacting our Advice service. If you haven't got it yet you'll need it for Freshers! Click to download on Android and iPhone.

 

15. Building campfires and exploring Brighton with our student residentials

Just before term kicks off in September we take MDXSU student staff, interns, Liberation Assembly leaders and society committees away for our MDXSU Residential - two days of training and meeting people (and a bit of fun too...). This April we also hosted our first ever Societies Residential in Brighton, which brought 40 of next year's society leaders together to receive training and plan for the year ahead.

 

16. 4,000 students signing a petition to Keep Wednesday Afternoons Free

Many universities give students Wednesday afternoons free from classes for sport, work and co-curricular activities. Our KWAF campaign, led by Vice President Orla Hillary, received 4,000 signatures, and the university are working to try and ensure Wednesday afternoons will be free from classes from 2017/18.

 

17. Calling out harassment

We launched our Call It Out campaign last summer to raise awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment and encourage students to call out unwanted or abusive behaviour. While there's more to do, the MDXSU Women's Assembly has done some great awareness-raising work (amongst their other really creative campaigns), and we're encouraged that the university has now led an independent enquiry into the issue.

 

18. Being able to sell baked goods!

It might sound like a fairly little victory, but we have been campaigning for years to allow our societies to fundraise by selling baked goods on campus! In February the university agreed to the request by our Vice President Sayed, and student societies are now able to access this simple yet valuable way of raising money for charity.

 

19. Launching our 'Ideas for Change' page on our website

We wanted to make it easier for students to feed back about their experience at MDX and suggest issues we should campaign on. That's why we set up our online 'Ideas for Change' tool, which has received 24 ideas and almost 1,000 votes since it launched in November 2015! Twelve ideas have achieved the 30 votes needed to be passed onto the Executive Committee for consideration and implementation - watch this space for their progress.

 

20. Marching in Pride

This year Middlesex University and Middlesex Students' Union got to march together in the London in Pride Parade for the first time ever! Over 50 students and staff marched in the LGBT parade, including Theatre Arts student Douglas Powell - you can read Douglas' experience of the event here.

 

What were your highlights of the past year? We're so excited for what's in store for MDXSU and for you in 2016/17.

 

Keep up with our news, events, campaigns and successes as they come in by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

 

 

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