Our fellow students,

As we've been winding down for the Christmas break, we can't help but reflect on the term we have just had.

Firstly we would like to say a massive thank you to you as students at Middlesex; whether you’ve enjoyed our welcome weeks, taken part in our Student Voice Leader elections or just visited the Students' Union for some advice – your collective support has contributed to MDXSU having an extraordinary and historic first term of the 15/16 year.

We have seen staggering progress in every area of our Students' Union; from an increase in welcome week event attendance from 7,000 to nearly 10k, to over 90 candidates in our trustee elections (which is probably a UK SU record) and over 600 votes in the Student Voice Leader elections. Not to mention packing out every club night event we held in MDX House, a 40% increase in merchandise sales, an amazing new app, an award winning RAG, the amazing new media room, strong representation at Boards of Studies, an enormously successful residential, a cheerful Christmas market, more advice cases resolved than ever before, and ludicrous numbers of views for our printing campaign videos (who knew watching people get rugby tackled was so enjoyable).

The wins haven’t just been internal for the SU either. We are now at the centre of the university's strategic planning process, where we are making progress on everything from our ‘Keep Wednesdays Afternoons Free’ campaign to becoming a living wage employer. Off campus, we led a campaign which saw Barnet become the second council in the country to agree to take 50 Syrian refugees; we won student discount for student nurses at the pub near royal free hospital; and we've started building towards what will be the biggest mayoral election hustings ever.

Taking into account all of the incredible wins for Middlesex students, we do believe there is one thing that stands out – through our positive engagement over the past few years, we have now moved the position of our university to a place where its new strap line is ‘putting students first in everything we do’. When we first started as students here at Middlesex, that type of position from the university would have been inconceivable, but your involvement and engagement day in day out has radically changed the direction of our university for the better.

The sun is truly setting on the past and we end the year on the cusp of witnessing a new dawn rising over Middlesex, where students are genuinely the heart of everything the university does and an exciting new chapter is about to begin.

So today we are proud to say; the state of the Students' Union is strong, united and in 2016 we're absolutely ready to finish the job we have started this year.

We hope you have a great festive season. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Aman, Orla, Andre & Sayed