Transforming potential into success Middlesex University Strategy 2017-2022 Middlesex University Strategy 2017-2022 Contents Foreword 05 Our Strategy 07 Strategy overview 08 About Middlesex 11 Strategic Aim 1: Inspiring success 14 Strategic Aim 2: Practice-based learning 16 Strategic Aim 3: A vibrant student experience 18 Strategic Aim 4: A values-driven culture 20 Strategic Aim 5: Research that benefits our students 22 Strategic Aim 6: Building support for our mission 24 Measures of success 27 Making it happen 29 www.mdx.ac.uk | 3 Middlesex University | Transforming potential into success The College building 4 | www.mdx.ac.uk Middlesex University Strategy 2017-2022 Foreword Middlesex is an amazing institution, taking its students on life-changing journeys and confident of its role in an increasingly uncertain world. We are proud of our history, which dates back over 140 years to the specialist London colleges and institutions that over time became a successful polytechnic and then a leading modern university. Our heritage has laid the foundations for who respecting and building on our past. Six strategic we are today – a global institution that embraces aims and accompanying objectives set out how inspiring teaching, lifelong learning and creative our activities will be focused, whilst our new innovation. At Middlesex we put students first, values will guide how we work to achieve them. empowering our students with highly valued A suite of eight cross-cutting Enabling Plans will skills and knowledge for rewarding careers and take forward specific initiatives that link directly to fulfilling lives, enabled by expert teaching and our aims. enriched by applied research. It is with great pleasure that we introduce our Our mission lies at the heart of some of the most new Strategy. Whether a member of staff, pressing issues of our time, from social mobility to student, alumnus, partner or supporter, we invite the skills needed for economic success. Through you to join us on our exciting journey. transforming the lives of our students and the impact of our research and practice, we are an engine of social mobility and productivity growth. Middlesex owes its success to the expertise and dedication of its staff and the commitment and achievements of its students and graduates. Professor The Strategy has been shaped collaboratively Tim Blackman by the many ideas and contributions of our staff Vice-Chancellor and students, who will be central to shaping the University’s future as we build on our legacy. Geraldine Proudler The Strategy presents a renewed vision and Chair of the Board of mission for Middlesex, looking forward yet Governors www.mdx.ac.uk | 5 Middlesex University | Transforming potential into success The Sheppard Library 6 | www.mdx.ac.uk Middlesex University Strategy 2017-2022 Our Strategy Transforming potential into success Middlesex is about transformational journeys, empowering our students with the tools, attributes and opportunities to turn their potential into success. To do this, we know how important it is to get our internationalism, from the different cultures and students on the right learning pathway and provide a communities of our many London students, to the 145 distinctive, high quality education for the modern world. nationalities of our international students studying at Our inspiring courses with clearly defined routes into our Hendon campus, our campuses abroad and our career opportunities are a cornerstone of our offer and academic partners in the UK and around the world. commitment to our students’ futures. With personalised support and flexible learning, we enable every student At Middlesex, we not only value diversity but harness its to study on the right course and in the right way potential to enrich learning and personal development. for them. By using our diversity of identities and abilities, we empower our students with the skills and mindsets to Our distinctive student experience is defined by work with different ideas and perspectives, whether to innovative teaching and learning, engaging and vibrant create new designs and artworks, solve technical and campuses and the richness of our diversity. business problems, or improve professional practice. All our students will engage in active, practice-based Our students’ journeys do not end when they graduate. learning, supported by personal tutors, and using our They go on to shape the world and keep learning. As an academics’ ground-breaking research and practice to institution, we cannot just look inwards to what happens ensure they are at the cutting edge of their subjects and while our students are with us. We need to look professions. They will stand out as Middlesex graduates, outwards and use our expertise and capabilities to be equipped with the skills and attributes they need part of the big conversations that matter to our students to succeed. and their future lives, from tackling barriers to social mobility to sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Our campuses are a signature strength of the University, creating a student experience that promotes wellbeing The Strategy sets out the University’s direction for and a sense of community. They are designed as places the next five years. Our priorities are presented as six where our students want to be, whether to study strategic aims, supported by specific objectives. These individually or in groups, socialise, exercise or relax. are driven by our new vision, mission and values, which will guide the way we work together and unite us in a We are a global university and like our home common purpose of transforming potential into success. city of London reflect its diversity and share its www.mdx.ac.uk | 7 Middlesex University | Transforming potential into success Strategy overview Inspiring Practice-based A vibrant success learning student experience Strategic Aim 1 Strategic Aim 2 Strategic Aim 3 Provide an inspiring choice of Engage our students in active, Create a vibrant student courses and learning pathways practice-based learning, with experience that promotes that empower students with the teaching enriched by research and wellbeing and builds a sense ambition, skills and knowledge to innovative practice that creates of belonging and commitment. succeed in graduate employment. highly employable graduates. Objectives Objectives Objectives • We will offer a wide range of • Our curricular and co-curricular • We will work with our students as inspiring courses that are designed experiences will be co-created partners to improve continuously to meet future skills needs and put with students, employers and their experience, engagement every student on a path to realising professional bodies. and commitment. their full potential. • Using the diversity of our students • We will ensure our campuses • We will enable students to study as a resource will be a distinctive are welcoming spaces that on the right course and in the right feature of their learning and promote wellbeing and a sense way for them, with the support and personal development. of community. flexibility to achieve their goals. • Active, practice-based learning will be • Our learning, support and social • We will build our partnerships with our standard, equipping our students spaces will be environmentally industry, the professions and other with the skills and attributes to stand sustainable and have the flexibility learning providers to create career out in the modern workplace. to adapt to learning innovations opportunities for our students and • We will provide personalised and changing needs. develop new programmes and academic, professional and peer pathways such as apprenticeships support, acting early to help students and mobile learning. who get off track. • We will establish new and • We will work to reduce differences strengthen existing recruitment in outcomes related to students’ pathways for potential students backgrounds or prior attainment. to join us and benefit from a • We will ensure that evidence, Middlesex education. innovation and research continually enhance teaching and learning. 8 | www.mdx.ac.uk Middlesex University Strategy 2017-2022 Our vision Our mission Our values The leading university Everyone at Middlesex will • We put students first. for transforming potential have the opportunities • We collaborate, achieving into success. and tools to chart their path to more by working together. success in a community where • We act fairly, with integrity, the experiences we create respect and purpose. together are life-changing and • We shape the future, our diversity is a strength continuously improving and inspiration. on what has gone before. A values-driven Research that Building culture benefits our support for students our mission Strategic Aim 4 Strategic Aim 5 Strategic Aim 6 Foster a values-driven Undertake high quality Further our mission through high-performance culture that research, practice and corporate, policy and community enables us to realise our vision. knowledge exchange engagement, building support for that benefit our students. the University and setting agendas in tertiary education and skills. Objectives Objectives Objectives • We will embed our values • We will ensure that our research, • We will play an influential role in everything we do. practice and knowledge exchange externally in the sectors and localities • We will shape and support our are high quality, sustainable, where we work, building support for workforce to have the capabilities user-driven and benefit