Middlesex University

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

Middlesex University, branded as Middlesex University London (MDX), is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The university is in the historic county of Middlesex.

The university's history can be traced to 1878 when its founding institute, St Katharine's College, was established in Tottenham as a teacher training college for women. Having merged with several other institutes, the university was consolidated in its current form in 1992. It is one of the post-1992 universities (former polytechnics).

Middlesex has a student body of over 19,000 in London and over 37,000 globally. The university has student exchange links with over 100 universities in 22 countries across Europe, the United States, and the world. More than 140 nationalities are represented at Middlesex's Hendon campus alone. Additionally, it has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius as well as a number of local offices across the globe. Courses are delivered by the Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Professional and Social Sciences, and the Faculty of the Arts and Creative Industries.

In 2023, it was awarded an overall rating of Silver by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. The university has been awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize three times and has twice received Queen's Award for Enterprise for its international work.

History

For 140 years, the institutions which eventually formed Middlesex University have been based in north London. The university grew out of mergers between different schools and colleges in the area beginning in 1878 when St. Katherine's College, a female teacher training college, was created in Tottenham. It was joined by Hornsey College of Art, founded in 1882, Ponders End Technical Institute, founded in 1901, and Hendon Technical Institute, opened in 1939.

In 1973, these colleges and further institutions around north London formed Middlesex Polytechnic. In 1992 Middlesex University was established from Middlesex Polytechnic by royal assent as part of the Further and Higher Education Act. More institutions joined at this time as Middlesex expanded further.

From the 1990s, the university began to develop its international presence with their first overseas regional office in Kuala Lumpur. In 1995, a network of regional offices opened across Europe. In 2005, Middlesex opened its first overseas campus in Dubai followed by a campuses in Mauritius in 2009 and Malta in 2013. The university also has partnerships with other educational institutions around the world.

The university has now consolidated its many London campuses into one Hendon campus where it now accommodates all its London-based teaching.

Timeline

1878 – St Katherine's College, Tottenham founded

1882 – Hornsey College of Art founded

1893 – Berridge House, Hampstead founded

1901 – Ponders End Technical Institute begins

1939 – Hendon Technical Institute opens

1947 – Trent Park College of Education opens

1962 – New College of Speech and Drama opens

1962 – Ponders End Technical Institute is renamed Enfield College of Technology by the Ministry of Education.

1964 – St Katherine's College unites with Berridge House to form The College of All Saints

1973 – Middlesex Polytechnic formed

1974 – Trent Park College of Education and New College of Speech and Drama join Middlesex Polytechnic

1978 – The College of All Saints closes, with the buildings (and remaining students and some staff) transferred to Middlesex Polytechnic

1991 – David Melville becomes the first Vice-Chancellor

1992 – Middlesex University formed; Baroness Platt of Writtle becomes the first Chancellor of the university; First overseas regional office opens in Kuala Lumpur

1994 – The London College of Dance becomes part of the university

1995 – North London College of Health becomes part of the university; Regional offices open in Europe

1996 – Michael Driscoll becomes the Vice-Chancellor; Middlesex receives its first Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education

1998 – Whittington Hospital (Archway Wing) is jointly purchased with University College London (UCL) from National Health Service (NHS); Queen's Anniversary Prize awarded for the second time;

1999 – Middlesex achieves Investors in People status

2000 – Lord Sheppard of Didgemere becomes Chancellor; Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture on the Cat Hill campus opens to the public; Middlesex awarded third Queen's Anniversary Prize; Hendon campus redevelopment begins

2003 – Rebranding initiated in 2001 is completed with the approval of new university logo; Bounds Green campus closes; Queen's Award for Enterprise received

2004 – London Sport Institute established within the School of Health and Social Sciences

2005 – First overseas campus opens in Dubai (UAE); Tottenham campus closes with most programmes transferred to Trent Park campus

2007 – Middlesex Media programmes awarded Skillset Media Academy status by the Government Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills

2008 – Enfield campus closes in summer – programmes, students and staff relocate to Hendon

2009 – Second overseas campus opens in Mauritius

2010 – Philosophy research centre and postgraduate programmes relocate to Kingston University after a decision to close taught programmes and subsequent campaign to save them

2011 – 2nd Queen's Award for Enterprise; to charge £9,000 a year in tuition fees – maximum under government legislation; Cat Hill closed, relocated to Trent Park and Hendon. 200 redundancies to make £10m of savings

2012 – Trent Park campus closed and programmes relocated to flagship campus in Hendon.

2013 – Closure of Archway campus and transfer of programmes to Hendon. All UK teaching at Hendon. Third international campus opens in Malta

2015 – Professor Tim Blackman becomes the Vice-Chancellor

2016 – Inauguration of the new hall of residence "Unite Olympic Way" at London Campus with 700 new rooms for Middlesex University students.

2016 – Inauguration of the new building "Forum North" (London Campus). "Forum North" houses Art & Design, Media & Performing Arts and Science & Technology facilities in an impressive eco-friendly building.

2017 – The £18 million Ritterman building is opened. It is home to the UK's first cyber factory

2018 – Middlesex University's Students' Union is awarded Students' Union of the Year ----

Restructuring

In May 2001 the university appointed C Eye, a branding consultancy, to design a new logo. In 2003, the previous "M" logo was replaced with a new red-coloured wavy line intended to express a flexible and responsive approach to the needs of students.

Following the review of the sustainability of its academic programmes, the university implemented a series of cuts over 2005–2006. In late 2005 it decided to stop offering history courses in an attempt to reduce a £10 million deficit. The decision was met with hostility from Middlesex's student union as well as from the National Union of Students. In other moves to save costs, the university made 175 voluntary redundancies, including 33 academic staff, a measure that was intended to save £5 million.

Since 2000, Middlesex has embarked on a strategy to achieve "fewer, better campuses" to reduce costs and improve its long-term sustainability. The strategy translated into the disposal of several small arts campuses in Bedford, Hampstead and Wood Green and the larger, but still uneconomic and unattractive campuses at Bounds Green, Enfield and Tottenham. The university also closed the Corporate Services building at the North London Business Park and consolidated most of the functions carried out on these sites at Hendon, where it aims to accommodate nearly all its London-based teaching.

In 2010, Middlesex announced the closure of its Philosophy department, because it was judged to be not financially sustainable. This was despite the fact that it had been the highest ranking department in the university's latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2008, building on its grade of 5 in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. An international campaign of support was quickly organised, with figures such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jean-Luc Nancy, Slavoj Žižek, Étienne Balibar, David Harvey, Isabelle Stengers expressing their strong disapproval. Articles condemning the decision appeared in the national press and students protested on campus and elsewhere for its restitution. In early June 2010 it was announced that the postgraduate component, the CRMEP, was to be transferred to Kingston University, but the undergraduate programme was still to be phased out.

Campuses

The university has consolidated most of its activities onto the Hendon campus in London with all teaching located at Hendon from autumn 2013. All older campuses were closed – Bounds Green (2003), Tottenham (2005), Enfield (2008), Cat Hill (2011), Trent Park (2012), and Archway and Hospitals (2013) – while Hendon received substantial investment in facilities and infrastructure to accommodate new students and programmes.

Since 2004, the university has also been operating an overseas campus in Dubai and opened another one in Mauritius in October 2009. In September 2013, Middlesex opened its third international campus in Malta.

Current campuses

London: Hendon

The Hendon campus is located in north-west London, near Hendon Central Underground station. Its main College Building was built in the neo-Georgian style by H.W. Burchett and opened in 1939 as part of Hendon Technical Institute. This was extended in 1955 and in 1969 when a new refectory and engineering block were added, and later expanded using a number of London Borough of Barnet office buildings including the current Town Hall and Library.

Over £200m has been invested to transform the university's Hendon site into one of London's biggest campuses. The main College Building was refurbished in a £40 million project which included the addition of a glass-covered central courtyard forming Ricketts Quadrangle. In 2004, the new Learning Resource Centre, the Sheppard Library, opened to offer 24/7 access to over 1,000 study areas and specialist facilities including a Financial Markets Suite, Law Wing, and Teaching Resources Room.

The Ritterman Building is one of Middlesex University's newest developments, and was opened in February 2017. It provides over 3,300 square metres of additional teaching space for both the Faculty of Science and Technology, and the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, and is home to the UK's first 'Cyber Factory'. Its design incorporates sustainable technologies including solar panels, a bio-diverse green roof, and living walls irrigated by rainwater harvesting.

Other specialist facilities include bioscience and biomedical science laboratories, nursing and midwifery simulation labs.

The Hendon campus has a number of sports facilities, including a fitness studio, 7-a-side football pitches, floodlit outdoor courts (MACS), a bouldering wall, and one of the few real tennis courts in the UK. In October 2013, the university opened a new sports science facility at Allianz Park (the new stadium of Saracens Rugby Club) in Hendon. The refurbished university gym, Fitness Pod, opened in 2017 to offer gym and leisure facilities to students, staff and the local community.

Dubai

In 2005, the university opened a campus in the Dubai Knowledge Village as part of Dubai's Technology and Media Free Zone. This is a joint venture with Middlesex Associates, a business consortium in Dubai. The campus was the first Middlesex campus outside north London. It provides courses in Accounting and Finance, Business and Management, Computing and IT, Education, Law and Politics, Marketing, Media and Communications, Psychology, Social Science and International Tourism Management.

The campus is licensed by Dubai Knowledge and Human Authority (KHDA), and its programmes are approved by the KHDA. In August 2009, KHDA's University Quality Assurance International Board (UQAIB) commended the quality of university's programmes.

The Dubai campus had enrolled over 3,200 students, and houses a 100 diverse nationalities, as of 2020 and through the years.

In 2017, the university hosted the EU and UAE conference regarding the Rule of Law and Arbitration, where the Head of Delegation of the European Union to the United Arab Emirates, along with the legal director of Clyde & Co and the head of advocacy of Taylor Wessing were present.

In August 2019, the university was chosen to be a partner of the PRCA in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Mauritius

Located in Bonne Terre, a suburb of Vacoas-Phoenix, the 7,800 sq metre campus officially opened in 2010, the first British university to open in the country. It features a Learning Resource Centre, open access and computer suites, and dining and social spaces as well as on-site accommodation. Lecturing academics based at the Mauritius campus work in partnership with the academic programme team based at Middlesex's London campuses to ensure the quality standards of the UK programmes are maintained in curriculum delivery, teaching styles and assessment.

In October 2017, Middlesex opened its new campus at Cascavelle. The new campus has biodiversity and psychology labs and a student house for clubs and societies. Over 1,000 students, from 25 nationalities around the world, study both undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the campus.

Former campuses

Malta

In 2013 Middlesex opened its newest campus in Malta in Pembroke on Malta's northeast coast. The campus is shared with academic partner STC Training and offers a variety of business and science and technology courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including top-up and postgraduate courses in Computing, IT and business.

In February 2019, it was announced that the Malta campus will close by September 2022.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “Middlesex University” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.