Middlesex is a diverse modern university, dating from the founding of St Katherine’s College, Tottenham, 140 years ago. In the latest Times Higher Education Supplement rankings, it is one of the world’s top 500 universities — the only modern university in London to feature in the top 500.

The university has a focus on “learning by doing”, including getting students to fulfil real-world industry commissions and many Middlesex lecturers remain prolific industry practitioners. Honorary doctors, such as Chief Rabbi Mirvis, who received his honorary degree this summer, are chosen as exceptional achievers in their fields, to act as an inspiration and a model for the university community.

For many years an important centre for training nurses, teachers and other public sector workers, the university is now also pioneering degree apprenticeships, offering a construction degree apprenticeship unique in the HE sector in the 2017-18 academic year and helping develop the programme for the new police constable degree apprenticeship. Middlesex awards and quality-assures degrees on behalf of dozens of educational partners, including the London School of Jewish Studies and Leo Baeck College. For example, this summer saw the first Middlesex students to graduate from the UK’s only airline-supported helicopter pilot practice degree, delivered in partnership with Helicentre Aviation and the first Virgin Atlantic cadet to graduate from the Middlesex airline pilots’ course, in partnership with pilot trainers L3.

New courses beginning next academic year include BA advertising, BA PR and branding and BA journalism and communication; BSc nutrition, BSc and MSci pharmaceutical chemistry, MSc psychological therapies and interventions and MSc data science and MSc international hospitality and events management. Many of the business school’s undergraduate courses have been revalidated and updated with new content.

Among subjects in which Middlesex excels are social work — where it came top in London in the Complete University Guide’s 2019 League Table — and film production and photography — best in the capital in the Guardian’s 2019 rankings. Middlesex BA photography students came first and runner-up in this year’s prestigious Free Range FR awards and a team of Middlesex BA Film students won Royal Television Society regional and Learning on Screen awards for black comedy musical Potty the Plant.

In engineering and hi-tech, Middlesex has reinforced the learning through doing approach with the design of collaborative work and teaching spaces in the new Ritterman building. The Ritterman also contains the Festo Cyber Factory, an industry-standard training facility that is the first of its kind in a UK higher education institution.

Science and technology faculty staff and students have been very active in public engagement work, offering demonstrations at events including STEM Fest on campus, New Scientist Live and Thorpe Park’s first ever STEM Fair. For London Tech Week, they were invited to showcase exhibits to the Mayor of London and tech industry figures.

Middlesex has invested heavily in new buildings and facilities since moving to a single campus in Hendon, including a 24/7 library, a Sony-designed TV studio complex, nursing suites with the latest life-like mannequins and a biomechanics facility with the UK’s most advanced 3D motion analysis equipment for sports science students.

There is substantial green space on campus and nearby. A wellness garden has been created to benefit those living with disabilities or mental illness, or experiencing stress. As gathering places in the university, the glassed-over quad and MDX House where the student union is based have an open, friendly and diverse atmosphere.

There are 80 student societies and Middlesex teams in more than 20 sports. The university provides free printing, a free eTextbook per module and laptops for hire. The UniTemps scheme helps students finds jobs on campus, at the London living wage or higher — and the Employability Service’s MDXcel work-experience programme links local businesses to students with valuable skills.

Middlesex is an attractive option for students who want to live at home while studying — more than 50 per cent of UK undergraduates live at their parents’ or guardians’ home in term-time. Bus and tube connections are good.

There is a growing Jewish Society, which recently welcomed the Chief Rabbi to a lunch-and-learn session. Middlesex and the University Jewish Chaplaincy work closely together and there are plans for a Friday-night dinner on campus for Jewish students from across London universities. The student union has actively fought discrimination, including working with local faith leaders to tackle antisemitic crime.

The university is a centre for interfaith and cross-cultural activities. TV production students have volunteered at Michael Sobell Community Centre to make a film on the importance of leaving gifts in wills and Middlesex worked with Jewish Book Week for the student-run North London Story Festival this spring. A recent exhibition by the Yad Vashem Foundation honoured Muslims who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Diversity and a culture of respect are fundamental to the Middlesex ethos.