WELCOME FROM THE VICE-CHANCELLOR
We begin our next chapter with ambition and a clear focus, emerging from a volatile and uncertain context. Building on over 4,000 contributions from our global community of staff, students, governors and partners, we have set out our exciting Strategy to 2031.
Our purpose is to create knowledge and put it into action, to develop fairer, healthier, more prosperous and sustainable societies. As a high-performing community, by 2031 we seek to be internationally recognised and sector-leading for the outcomes we achieve in our chosen themes. Engaging with our workforce and co-leading with our students, we will transform learning and create impact on global issues by being a learning organisation – curious, enquiring and taking action.
This year has been an extraordinary demonstration of how our University community is working together to shape a brighter, more inclusive and equitable world. In a challenging year, staff and students have worked incredibly hard to bring to life a blended learning and teaching approach which increases inclusivity. Equality, diversity and inclusion and a growing culture of innovative collaboration were at the heart of how students and staff worked together. Three National Teaching Fellowships awarded amongst our teaching community and a silver Whatuni award for our provision of excellent student support were among the many successes in recognition of our work and expertise across academia and professional services.
However, there is more to do to improve the experience of our students and to enhance our global reputation. Our restructured University Executive team, newly appointed academic leadership team and extended Academic Board will be instrumental in increasing the impact of diversity, reducing bureaucracy and setting the agenda and pace for development in the academic and cultural life of our University. The University is committed to continuing our co-leadership with our students, recent examples of which include the leadership students have shown on active citizenship, mental health and diversity in our community and education. Co-leadership is central to our Strategy and is reflected in the new MDXSU Strategy, and in our joint Academic Board and Students’ Union work on shared agenda-setting, as well as professional services work to co-create with students an overarching ‘statement on faith’.
Creating knowledge and putting it into action means having practice at the heart of what we do across research, knowledge exchange, engagement and education. For instance, in 2020/21 our community turned their expertise to the challenges caused by COVID-19, including research on a lung monitoring device, within a large NHS trust, that
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could have a major impact on recovery from COVID-19. We also worked in partnership across cultures, disciplines and sectors, for example undertaking research on gender justice and inclusive security in conflict-affected societies as part of the multi-partner Gender, Justice and Security Hub, and contributing to United Nations’ (UN) recommendations to advance the rights of indigenous peoples around the world. Crucially, in the course of the year, Middlesex provided evidence of the quality of its research environment, research impact and research culture to the government’s Research Excellence Framework (REF).
We believe that entrepreneurship, culture and creativity can drive socio-economic development and enrich lives. Middlesex is leading on human rights research, such as a project delivering and evaluating interventions to improve the sexual and reproductive health needs of women migrant workers in Malaysia. A new Expansive Learning module for our Nursing students was one of twelve case studies selected by the Royal College of Nursing as examples of how nursing can help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Around the world, we support people to make their communities more sustainable and fairer and to protect the environment, for instance through our research exploring how climate change adaptation policies affect the equitable involvement of affected citizens and seeking remedies to this that grow from community involvement. We were delighted to achieve impressive scores in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings for the effort invested by our community to achieve the UN SDGs, such as our leading work on SDG5 Gender equality for which we were ranked 12th
out of 776 institutions globally.
In response to the challenges lying ahead, our financial approach must be prudent. The ongoing disruption resulting from the pandemic, exam system changes nationally, and uncertainty around immigration and visa policies internationally, have impacted negatively on student recruitment and on our finances. In 2020/21 we have recorded a deficit but we forecast 2021/22 to begin to build towards sustainability that allows us to invest and grow. The University aims to carefully manage our finances and cash flow to emerge from the crisis in a strong position for the future.
I want to say a heartfelt thank you for everything our community members have contributed over the past year.
Professor Nic Beech Vice-Chancellor
Middlesex University
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