Starting a PhD can be both exciting and overwhelming. To help you get off to a smooth start, you can find a few practical resources on this page.

On this page you will find the most important issues that you as a student of Leiden University will have to deal with.

The entrepreneurial spirit is highly present among the SBB students. The many (successful) spin-off companies from Leiden University brought by (former) SBB students are proof of this.

Great that you are interested in one of the master's programmes of Leiden Law School. Apply before 15 June if you would like to start your master's programme this September. For students who expect to graduate with a bachelor's degree in Law (LL.B.) from Leiden University before the starting date in…

A Humanities degree gives you a solid start on the job market, as shown by the employment survey among alumni who graduated from 2020 through 2024.

At LUC we are very excited for your arrival this August, and are eagerly preparing everything for your move-in day and a fantastic introduction week. This site will give you all the information you need about the introduction week, as well as the practical information you need before moving to The…

The Career Service Humanities offers assistance while you’re a student and for a year after you graduate! We can help you with:

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If you're considering starting the master’s in February, please take into account that the programme may be adapted if fewer than 12 students enroll. In that case, you'll begin with an intensive crash course designed to provide essential foundational knowledge. Read below what the adapted program will…

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A jar, filled with water, that functions as an aquarium for fishes while plants or flowers grow on top. Urban Crops, a young start-up company, creates small eco-systems in jars by using aquaponic systems. The 'Ecojar' is a modern decoration in living-rooms and office spaces, but also purifies the air…

Language courses from February onwards

Archaeologist Victor Klinkenberg examined an old Assyrian settlement in Syria, near to the IS stronghold Raqqa. 'Social life was more important than military life.' PhD defence 27 October.

The powerful Dutch East India Company and West India Company were summoned before the High Court more often than historians have assumed. The complainants varied from competitors, to the Companies' own staff and even poor citizens. This is what Leiden historian Kate Ekama has discovered. PhD defence…

More than 3,500 enthusiastic Leiden first-years, 80% of them coming to Leiden University, gathered on Monday morning 13 August at the Lammermarkt for the start of the EL CID. Music booming, the groups gathered around their mentors in two shifts, at 9.30 and 11.30.

It's never too early for students to be smart about preparing for the job market. This year Leiden University is launching new initiatives to improve the transition from university to work. The new awareness campaign - CareerTime - is starting on 29 September with career stands at the faculties.

Navigation Lab Leiden has launched a study on the effects of the navigation training program we have developed, called Wayfinder. Milan van der Kuil is the main researcher on this project and studies how navigation ability can be improved in patients with acquired brain injury.

The year 2023 saw the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the Wagner Group rebellion and wildfires and floods as all the weather records were smashed. Our most-read stories were about the climate crisis and the elections: here’s the list.

The Horizon 2020 project ImageInLife has started on 1 January, followed by a kick-off meeting at the coordinating University of Montpellier at the end this month. This Marie Skłodowska-Curie training network brings together European groups that work on the imaging of vertebrates and offers fourteen…

30 July is the International Day of Friendship. The student years are a time when many close friendships are formed, and a surprising number of them last a whole lifetime. Two of our alumni share their stories about a special friendship.

Seven researchers from Leiden University have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant. This will enable them to start their own project, build their research team and put their best ideas into action.

Assistant professor Political Philosophy Dorota Mokrosinska has received the ERC Starting Grant for her project Democratic Secrecy: A Philosophical Study of the Role of Secrecy in Democratic Governance. The project, running from 2015 to 2020 is funded by the European Research Council

The master’s programme Industrial Ecology (IE) started in 2004 with 12 students and has increased until 90 students from 20 different countries this year.

On 7 May students from the Leiden Leadership Programme (LLP) and the International Leiden Leadership Programme (ILLP) gathered with an interdisciplinary panel to have a discussion about Intercultural Leadership.

MOOC Music & Society

Nineteen new Leiden University MOOCs have started this January. Anyone can take part in these online courses varying from combatting terrorism to kidney transplantation.

Academics from Leiden University have started a campaign against cuts at universities.

Our courses September courses start soon, be sure to apply in time

Connecting worlds, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. In that respect, a huge amount happened at Leiden University in 2023.

On 27 september historian Adam Zamoyski held a captivating lecture on his new book Napoleon: the Man behind the Myth. During this lecture, which was an initiative by Polen in Beeld and the Central and Eastern European Studies Center, Zamoyski answered the question: ‘what were the Napoleonic Wars really…

Six researchers from Leiden University have received an ERC starting grant. This grant of on average 1.5m euros will enable the researchers to launch their own project, form their own research team and develop their best ideas.

In an interview with Jaap van den Herik, Professor emeritus Law and IT, legal magazine Mr. writes that The Hague municipality wants to attract more legal tech start-ups. The municipality has therefore commissioned the Leiden Centre of Data Science (LCDS) of Leiden University to conduct a study into…

LUMC Campus The Hague will be contributing to the health of the inhabitants of The Hague with research, teaching and a training programme for GPs. The new campus is an initiative of the LUMC, Leiden University, the hospitals in The Hague, the Area Health Authority and the municipality of The Hague.…

The program for the Kaiser Spring Lectures 2018 has been published! Visit the Old Observatory in March for four amazing lectures about the Space Age.

You can still enroll for the master Magnetic Resonance Physics course. It starts at Monday, Nov. 13th 13:30 in HL 226. For more information go to https://studiegids.leidenuniv.nl/courses/show/76629/magnetic-resonance-physics

From 1 August 2020, smoking on the premises of Leiden University will be prohibited. Dutch law obliges institutions of higher education to enforce a full smoking ban on their premises as of that date.

Dr Cátia Antunes, lecturer in economic and social history, Leiden University Institute for History, and Dr Stijn Bussels, who will come to Leiden in 2012-2013 to join the Leiden University Institute for Cultural Disciplines, have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for their excellent proposals. The…

On January 14th the executive Master’s programme Cyber Security started for the second time at the HSD Campus

EL CID has started! This is the week when new students have the chance to get to know the city and student life. Some of the mentors and first-years introduce themselves.

Chemist Roxanne Kieltyka has received an ERC Starting Grant of 2 million euros. In her lab, she creates gels that mimic the instructive material that supports cells in our body. With the grant, she aims to make these gels stiff and tough, and to create a bio-printed miniature heart ventricle.

Leiden has the most highly regarded China Studies programme in Europe. But how did this knowledge find its way specifically to Leiden? For his PhD research Koos Kuiper delved into the unique history of the start of this unique programme.

Hundreds of new students at Leiden University attended the opening of the 2015-2016 academic year. They came from all corners of the world for the start of their new study programme. Portraits of some of the newcomers.

This academic year 49 promising international students will start their master’s degree here thanks to a Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS). The students, all from outside the EU, were welcomed in a special ceremony on 5 September. Who are they?

How can we further streamline the development of software for the government? Leiden University and ICTU are to investigate this in a joint research project that was launched on 6 July 2016.

'We believe that developing a protocol to help people fight cancer is extremely valuable, given that cancer is such a prevalent and devastating disease. If you believe so too, you can support us in realising this mission.' Master's student in Psychology Saskia Heijnen starts crowdfunding to make her…

On 30th September 2024, the newly established LL.M. track of the multidisciplinary Governance of Migration and Diversity Master Program welcomed its pioneer students during the GMD academic year opening event at the Wijkpaleis in Rotterdam. During the informative and day, students met the academic coordinators…

Today, 13 students at Leiden University have started a crowdfunding campaign to collect money for research into the possibilities of growing crops on Mars. Their research will contribute to the knowledge of our galaxy. The project is in the context of the iGEM competition.