By Aman Siddiqi, MDXSU President

Middlesex Students’ Union is the voice of Middlesex students. We’re here to represent you and your interests when the university makes decisions. While we’re passionate about doing so, we’re not always so good at letting you know what we’ve actually achieved for students and I want to change that.

This week I prevented two actions going through at a meeting with university staff, which would otherwise have had a real, negative impact on the experience of students at Middlesex. The meeting, the Assurance Committee, is one which makes sure that the university is sticking to its rules and regulations, and it’s our jobs as your elected Student Officers (President and Vice Presidents) to make sure students are at the focus of university decisions.

Blocked changes to complaints regulations

At the committee, a suggestion was made to reduce the amount of time that students could submit a complaint about the university - from six months down to three. I wanted to make sure that this didn’t happen for several reasons.

Firstly, students often aren’t aware of complaints processes, which can obviously cause a delay in complaints being submitted in the first place. Furthermore, I believe that students should have as much time as possible to think over their issues and seek help, not be rushed into it. Making a complaint can be daunting in many ways, and we want you to be sure you can make the right decision, and that you will not be treated unfairly because of it. We think reducing the time available to make the complaint will make this worse, not better.

Blocked weekly check-in at UniHelp for international research students

Another item we objected to concerned International Students from outside the EU. The government is currently increasing pressure on universities to monitor the whereabouts of these students, and the university responded by proposing that all Postgraduate Research Students on non-EU (or Tier 4) visas should be required to check into UniHelp once a week.

While MDXSU aims to campaign against this sort of requirement being made by the government in the first place, at the very least our university should be doing what it can to fulfil its obligations in an unobtrusive, more personal and friendly way. While we understand the need for the university to fulfil its requirements, we think this is unnecessary and overzealous – what about if a student was away on a placement or on holiday? The need to regulate the attendance of these students should be done in the most unobtrusive, personal way possible.

What happens next?

Both of these proposed changes were paused in order to review them and will be resubmitted to the assurance committee. I will continue to work with the university to ensure the best possible outcome for you and that every decision that the University makes, is at the heart of students of Middlesex University. Thank you to other members of the committee who spoke up and supported me in challenging these decisions.

How can I help represent my fellow students?

I’m glad you asked! Nominations are currently open for our Student Voice Leaders, who help us to listen to student issues and ideas, and campaign for changes to be made. You can find out more about what our Student Voice Leaders do and what the role involves by clicking here or emailing studentvoice@mdx.ac.uk. If you’re interested, remember to nominate yourself online by Sunday 18th October.