We’re proud of our diversity
Middlesex is an open and welcoming community. We value difference because it allows us to explore new perspectives and experiences, learning more than we ever could alone. We believe this richness of diversity enhances the experience of every MDX student.
We will provide you with a variety of new perspectives and experiences to explore.
We will encourage you to share your story, giving you the skills and confidence to do so.
We will acknowledge where barriers exist and act to ensure that equality, diversity, inclusion and justice are reflected within our ways of working.
We will listen, seeking to both understand and respect the views of others.
We expect you to be open to learning from and with others. Treating each other with respect and supporting each other’s success is at the core of how we work together.
We hope that you will challenge yourself to seek out new ideas, cultures and experiences.
We hope that you will ultimately become champions for diversity; both within our #TeamMDX community and in the wider world.
We have a number of different groups, networks, societies and initiatives that bring together our students around the topics of diversity, equality and inclusion.
These provide a space for students who face oppression and discrimination, whilst encouraging understanding, empathy and tolerance.
We encourage you to explore these groups:
The Athena Swan Charter was established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) in the higher education sector, spanning both teaching and research. In 2015, the Charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in non-STEMM subjects, and now includes staff in professional and support roles.
Athena Swan is managed by AdvanceHE. More information about Athena Swan can be found on the AdvanceHE website.
We have been awarded a highly-esteemed Bronze Award by the Athena Swan Charter, which recognises that the University has a solid foundation for eliminating gender bias and developing an inclusive culture that values all staff.
The Athena Swan internal Self-Assessment Team (SAT) undertook a rigorous self-assessment of data to assess gender equality across Middlesex's staff community. From this insight, the team developed a set of short, medium and longer term actions to help drive forward gender equality and representation across the University, including gender non-conforming individuals.
These actions include:
The Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT) currently meets quarterly. The Athena Swan SAT is working together to identify and implement necessary actions to improve gender equality at MDX, using data and research.
The main focus of the Athena Swan SAT is to:
The Athena Swan SAT has representation from a breadth of career stages and staff types, including professional and support staff, research and academic staff, and students. Membership of the Athena Swan SAT is gender-balanced, taking account of intersectionality in its make-up so far as is practicable, and is representative of the diversity inherent within MDX.
Middlesex University is committed to developing a distinctive, inclusive and sustainable research culture which fosters the skills, methods and ethos of practice-oriented, interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange.
Our approach to Athena Swan follows four strands:
We received a Gold Award from Stonewall – the world’s second-largest LGBTQ+ charity – for our commitment to inclusion of lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people in the workplace in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2023. Middlesex also ranked 58th (out of 268 institutions) in this Index, and came 8th out of the 30 higher education institutions that took part this year.
We are a member of Advance HE's Race Equality Charter. Signing up to this charter demonstrates commitment to improving the representation, progression and success of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students within higher education.
We offer lots of support, activities and opportunities at MDX. If students have a specific support or wellbeing need, we can help identify the right service for them.
Middlesex is proud to have created a policy for supporting trans students in collaboration with our students’ union. You can find more information about what it means to be trans and how to access support.