By Aman Siddiqi, MDXSU President

What a month it's been! MDXSU has just come to the end of our five week long Welcome Programme - longer than any other Students' Union's, don't you know - and it's not just the success of Freshers' that's given us reason to celebrate...

Firstly, we rejected university proposals which would have forced post-graduate international students to attend weekly monitoring meetings, and forced a re-review of the university's proposal to half the timeframe students would have to submit a complaint. Furthermore, our fantastic Syrian Refugees campaign - led by Vice President of Business and Law, Sayed Alkadiri - succeeded in its aim of convincing Barnet Council to resettle fifty Syrian refugees in the borough. In today's blog I'm going to add something else to the list of recent achievements; something record breaking!

Earlier this month MDXSU opened nominations for our first election of the academic year, in which we'll be electing Student Voice Leaders for each course, our Democracy and Involvement Committee, and one Student Trustee. Student Voice Leaders represent and voice the concerns of their peers and colleagues, while the Democracy and Involvement Committee (or DAIC) is the main body which oversees, implements and make recommendations on MDXSU's elections and democratic processes. Last but not least, Student Trustees are elected to sit on the Students' Union's Trustee Board, ensuring that we are financially afloat and not indulging in activity that could damage our reputation or financial position!

Nominations have now closed and voting is in full swing, and we're absolutely thrilled to announce that we've received a record breaking number of nominations! As well as our 309 Student Voice Leader nominations, we have a mind boggling 94 candidates for our one Student Trustee position, plus a staggering 58 nominations for our Democracy and Involvement Committee. Never in the history of MDXSU have we had such a high number of nominations for these positions.

We are one of the few Students' Unions in the country that gives our Student Voice Leaders the opportunity to lead on ideas for change, and it's so exciting to see that so many of you have taken an interest in shaping the direction of your Students' Union. This is a clear indicator that democracy is thriving at Middlesex University and MDXSU are putting students at the heart of everything that we do ensuring that it's led by students, for students.

Voting has already begun so I would urge you all to grab the nearest phone or laptop and vote, vote, vote!

If you would like to know more about how to get involved in elections, societies, being a Voice Leader, or anything they springs to mind, please get in touch. We are doing some phenomenal things here at MDXSU, so I'd like to invite you all to get involved, be a part of it, and let's make history together.


Aman Siddiqi