The university was a gift from William of Orange to the people of Leiden for their courageous resistance to the Spanish. We’ve all heard the story of the university’s foundation. But its foundation was also a success story for two friends.

South African poet Antjie Krog will be the writer in residence at Leiden University in autumn 2021. Krog is famous for her poetry collections and books, which are often inspired by the history of South Africa. In her role as writer in residence, she will give the annual Albert Verwey Lecture and a series…

Leiden University is an internationally oriented Dutch university, where we communicate with one another in both Dutch and English. To ensure that we handle this bilingual convention with due care, the Executive Board has established a set of guidelines on language policy. These guidelines set out the…

Alessandra Silvestri, a cosmologist at the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION), has been awarded an NWO Vidi grant for understanding the expanding universe. A growing number of theories explain why the expansion of the universe is accelerating, while more and more relevant observational data is pouring…

During his two-day visit to the Netherlands, the Chinese Prime Minister paid an unexpected visit to Leiden on 16 October. Li Keqiang spoke with Rector Carel Stolker, Chinese PhD candidates and students of China Studies.

Alumnus Ruurt Hazewinkel (90) has presented Leiden University with a special gift: a historic house on Leiden’s Rapenburg canal. He handed over the key to Rector Carel Stolker on Monday 25 January.

Leiden University will set up further activities with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Academics are increasingly facing threats, harassment and hate speech following public appearances. The Dutch universities – united in the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) – is now adopting a number of national measures, from a zero-tolerance policty to psychosocial help for vic…

Got some good ideas for making studying and working at the university greener? If so, share them with the Leiden University Green Office.

The Durham Declaration was presented at the Climate Symposium marking the Coimbra Group’s 40th anniversary on 26 March. Leiden University is proud to be one of the first signatories of this declaration.

The Europaeum academic community was awarded the Scaliger medal on 23 September in recognition of its promotion of academic values. Andrew Graham, trustee to the Europaeum and founder and honorary advisor to the Scholars Programme, was presented with the medal by President of the Executive Board Annetje…

Connecting scientific fields, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. What did the university achieve in 2024? A small sample.

Leiden University is the first Dutch university to join the Healthy Universities international network. Lifestyle workshops, rewards for good behaviour and the latest interventions encourage students and staff to live more healthily. The experiences gained through this network will be used in scientific…

In our teaching, we give all our students the opportunity to learn about sustainability themes and issues, where possible ones that tie in with the content of their degree programme.

The Department of Historical Studies at Central European University (Vienna, Austria) is pleased to announce its call for applications for the 2025/2026 academic year. The deadline is February 1, 2025.

Today the Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed professor Judi Mesman as Dean of LUC from July 1st, 2016. The College Board of LUC is delighted that professor Mesman will be the next Dean of our College and would like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome her to LUC.

Leiden University and Ristek Dikti have set up a joint scholarship program for PhD degrees. Eligible candidates who wish to take their PhD at Leiden University are invited to register with RistekDikti before April 30, 2019. Candidates need to fulfill the requirements as set by RistekDikti and by Leiden…

Leiden University has become a partner of the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

In March, Dutch universities will take staggered strike action against the planned cuts. The strike will begin in Leiden on Monday 10 March. The university supports the strike action but is not going to close that day. Below we inform you how the strike will affect our university, students and staff…

Vice-chairman of the Executive Board Martijn Ridderbos will leave Leiden University at the end of this year.

More than 800 universities have called on the European Council to come to be more visionary in its ambitions for European research, innovation and education. They believe the current budget to be insufficient.

The world around us is changing. What does that mean for the future of Europe, on this turbulent world stage? And what does it mean for our teaching, and for the expectations that Leiden University has of its students? These were the key questions during the opening of the 2018-2019 academic year on…

‘That hornets’ nest in Leiden must be destroyed,’ said Dutch National Socialist Party member Robert van Genechten in November 1942. He was referring to Leiden University. Why this hatred? Emeritus Professor of University History Willem Otterspeer has written a book about Leiden University during the…

Dr. Nadine Akkerman, working at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Birmingham from May 27 till July 4. She will participate in an important public discussion on Challenges for Early Modern Women's History and she'll be the keynote…

The American Chemical Society’s Publication Division (ACS) and Dutch universities represented by the VSNU have reached agreement on including open access publication as part of the contract with publishers. From 2017, all new articles submitted by an author associated with a Dutch university or participating…

Mathematician Hester Bijl will be appointed Vice-Rector Magnificus and member of the Executive Board of Leiden University with effect from 1 November 2016. She succeeds Simone Buitendijk.

On 19 October, around 10,000 prospective students will come to the Open Day to find out more about student life and the programmes in Leiden and The Hague. But what makes the Open Day so special? Five highlights that you definitely shouldn’t miss!

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.

Radio telescope LOFAR maps the sky. It produces incredibly detailed images of the universe - and vast amounts of data. Huub Röttgering, director of the Leiden Observatory, talks about the challenges of working with those enormous datasets.

At a symposium on 26 May, experts, staff and students from Leiden University will discuss what should happen with Rein Dool’s painting in the Academy Building and what the guidelines for the University’s exhibition policy should be. These issues will be explored from diverse perspectives during the…

For the students of our Dutch institutions, the Netherlands Embassy supported an ‘academic retreat’ at hotel Stella de Mare in Ayn Sukhna. During this two-day retreat, our students discussed with students of al-Azhar University in Cairo on various topics. It was an open exchange of ideas and feedback…

Hans-Martien ten Napel has been awarded a Research Fellowship in Legal Studies at the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) at Princeton University, USA, which enables him to be in full-time residence at CTI for the academic year, 1 September 2014 to 31 May 2015.

Have you considered including the Leiden University Fund in your will?

Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) is celebrating its fifth anniversary. This English-language programme with on-campus teaching for excellent students has proved to be a great success. On Saturday 10 October, the LUC will be celebrating in Diligentia Theatre in The Hague with numerous speakers,…

You can't have missed it: Leiden University celebrated its 444th anniversary in 2019 with a year-long programme of activities for the people of Leiden and The Hague. The Dies Natalis on 7 February 2020 marks the end of this special year. High time to look back at what we did!

On December 3, Erik Kwakkel (University of British Columbia) will give a lecture in the University Library Leiden, titled “Writing on the Wall: Medieval Advertisement Sheets in Perspective.” Professional scribes in the Middle Ages produced advertisement sheets with which they presented themselves to…

Twelve Chinese PhD candidates in the Netherlands who are funded by the China Scholarship Council met with Leiden staff on 26 April 2012 to exchange experiences. Ten days earlier Leiden had welcomed a delegation from Peking University.

A new University brochure, About Us 2020, provides in-depth information about Leiden University, its research, teaching and impact on society in 2020. It also showcases the research and teaching at the seven faculties.

Alireza Mashaghi, a principal investigator at the Division of Systems Biomedicine and Pharmacology has been appointed Adjunct Professor at the Ocular Genomics Institute of Fudan University, a leading university in China. This appointment will boost the ongoing cooperation between LACDR and Fudan University…

Els Rose has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne. Rose is professor of late and medieval Latin at Utrecht University. The committee commended Rose for “ her original research, that has contributed to an understanding of the breadth and depth of the reception of texts and traditions…

Lecture, This Time for Africa! series

Leiden University celebrated the Relief of Leiden with the 3 October University. This year the University also took part in the festive parade, to promote 444.

Following a period of intensive discussion, the University Council (UR) approved the University Quality Standards Plan on 10 December. The UR endorses the content of the plan in broad terms and is pleased with the extra efforts made by the University.

Dutch researchers will continue to have access to scientific articles published by Elsevier.

The Dutch universities, university medical centres and Research Council have reached an agreement with Elsevier Publishing on a national open science partnership. The partnership includes open access publishing and reading services for Elsevier journals and open science services for disseminating and…

Last year Leiden University appointed an extra 25 female professors. With these appointments the Executive Board has increased the percentage of women in the highest academic role.

The celebration of Leiden's Dies Natalis on Monday 9 February in the Pieterskerk was extra special this year and was attended by many prominent guests. This was the kick-off of the special 88th Lustrum (five-year) celebrations in 2015.

Digitalisation can make a huge contribution to a greener future, but it must also be as sustainable as possible. To make significant progress, more collaboration and national leadership will be needed. Leiden University has therefore signed the Digital Sustainability Manifesto, which was presented on…

It must be there. We just cannot see it: mysterious dark matter and dark energy in the universe. Henk Hoekstra is one of the many cosmologists who would love to know what exactly these substances consist of. He has received a European research grant of 1.3 euro million to find out.

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Jan Kolen as the University’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coordinator as of 1 February 2022. In this role Kolen will take the lead in regional and national cooperation relating to the topic of AI, data and digitalisation.