As of February, Pepijn Reeser steps down as the project director of the Taalmuseum (the Language Museum). Exhibition designer and project manager Tessa Askamp takes over his role.

The Dutch scientists Quirine Eijkman and Jan-Peter Loof have been appointed vice-presidents in the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights.

The latest episode of the ‘Betrouwbare Bronnen’ political podcast is devoted to the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP). One of the speakers is Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl, who talks about the importance and future of this internationally renowned Leiden knowledge centre.

Ticketmaster – the largest ticket sales company in the world – is under fire from both consumers and Dutch MPs. The reason is the sale of tickets for the Lowlands festival, where resale tickets are costing at least 100 euros more than the original ticket price of 300 euros. Political parties GroenLinks,…

On 14 December 2022, students of the course Social and Ecological Activism in the Visual Arts (as part of the Creative Strategies for a Society in Change minor) presented and performed their final collective project at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht: the Water Cultures Institute group role-playing…

In SustainaBul, 16 higher education institutions are ranked on sustainability each year. Leiden University has managed to keep its fifth place. A good position, but with room for improvement.

In Germany, the United States and even in Vietnam: all over the world, the Leiden discovery of the birth of two planets was shared. Astronomer Sebastiaan Haffert and his team were able to record multiple planets in the making for the first time and published their findings in Nature Astronomy. A unique…

Employees are now in a better position to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment. This is mainly visible in wage increases and fringe benefits. Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics at Leiden University, spoke to NU.nl about workers' improved negotiating position.

A complex discussion is currently taking place in the Municipality of The Hague. An alderman has shared secret information about a future shelter with a group of select residents, asking them not to share this information with others. Geerten Boogaard, Professor Local Government, talks about the issue…

Dimiter Toshkov, Olaf van Vliet, Alexandre Afonso and Zouheir El-Sahli from the Institute of Public Administration (FGGA) and the Department of Economics (Faculty of Law) have been commissioned to carry out research for the European Asylum Support Office.

At the meeting of the Dutch Employment Law Association (Vereniging voor Arbeidsrecht, VvA) on 12 March 2024, which Paul van der Heijden moderated as chair, Yvonne Erkens, Daan van Thiel and Bas Rombouts (Tilburg University) outlined the impact of the shift from soft law to hard law within the context…

By tradition, the moot court competition of the 'Vereniging voor Bestuursrecht' (VAR, Dutch Administrative Law Association) takes place in May every year. This year, it was the honour of Leiden University to organise the event.

From 18th -21st May, a delegation of the Europa Institute attended the 27th biannual FIDE congress in Budapest, Hungary.

Due to the tightness of the labour market, staff shortages are on the rise in many sectors. One solution often mentioned in the policy debate is that people should work more hours per week; the part-time factor should increase. Another possibility mentioned these days in the United States, is to increase…

Herman Berkhoudt (former employee of the IBL, then EEW) organized the course, while Merijn de Bakker and Hans Slabbekoorn spoke about the latest insights in their disciplines.

On the 1st of November 2017, Ingrid Leijten hosted an expert-seminar titled ‘Tailored Provisions, Social Rights Compliance?’ (‘Maatwerk als Mensenrecht?’).

Starting 1 January 2016 Maartje van der Woude is appointed as full professor of Sociology of Law at Leiden University.

In order to attract and retain new talent, employers in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam are increasing their support offered to parents and expectant parents. This includes funding sleep coaches, babysitters and fertility programmes for their staff. Professor of Economics Olaf van Vliet explains…

The ‘spreidingswet’ (dispersal law) has been passed by Dutch Senate and will take effect on 1 February. In the municipality of Westland, however, a majority in the council is unwilling to create 700 extra reception places.

Legal frameworks are often a pitfall when it comes to citizens’ initiatives. Esmee Driessen, a guest lecturer at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law and an expert in citizen participation, conducted research on the support and facilitation of citizens' initiatives. In a Dutch journal…

The Hague City Council is discussing the implications for local politics of the verdict acquitting former councillors De Mos and Guernaoui of corruption. The court ruled that from a criminal law perspective there was no official bribery. The debate will mainly focus on whether De Mos' party ‘Hart voor…

On Thursday, November 20, 2025, the Leiden Jewish Studies Network celebrated the launch of the book Still Lives: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany (The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) co-authored by Ofer Ashkenazi (Jerusalem), Sarah Wobick-Segev (Hamburg), Shira Miron (Basel) and Rebekka Grossmann…

The number of self-employed people has risen over the past few years. Professor of Economics Olaf van Vliet explains this development in Dutch online newspaper NU.nl.

Comparing terrorist attacks with falling off a step ladder is absurd, writes Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn in NRC Handelsblad on 27 September 2017.

For a month long, the Senate Chamber of Leiden University was reserved for portraits of women. The work of art showing a hundred unique portraits of female professors has now been put into storage, but the board of the University is taking measures to promote the image of women in science.

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.

We can all do something to contribute to men working less and being more active at home, argues university lecturer Max van Lent in a podcast of Dutch ‘De Telegraaf' newspaper.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) will handle more criminal cases without involvement of the courts. The aim: more community service and fewer prison sentences. Jan Crijns, Professor of Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law, commented on the proposal in ‘Trouw’ newspaper.

Free cinema tickets or a step tracker paid for by your health insurance. Some insurers offer rewards to promote healthy behaviour. But does the threat of losing something like a deposit work better? And what do patients think? This is what PhD candidate David de Buisonjé researched.

More than 30 members of Programme Committees, Faculty Councils and the University Council met online on 27 November with a mission: how can university co-participation work towards a more sustainable university in terms of education, research, and operations? The Leiden University Green Office and the…

For the first time ever, more women than men have been awarded PhDs at Leiden University. In 2019, 226 women defended their dissertations as opposed to 207 men. More women were also awarded a distinction: seven of the thirteen ‘cum laude’ distinctions were awarded to women.

Rather than finger-wagging, the Netherlands has opted for pragmatism when it comes to human rights. That is what Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok said in a lecture in the Academy Building on Human Rights Day on 10 December 2019.

Scientists have long been puzzled why it is easier to produce hydrogen from water in an acidic environment than in an alkaline environment. Marc Koper comes with an explanation: the reason is the electric field at the surface of the catalyst, which is larger in an alkaline environment, as he writes…

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.

Are you curious about how the human skeleton works? Discover this and more on 3 October in Leiden and on 4 October in The Hague.

For academic year 2019-2020, an additional 270 housing units will be available for international students in Leiden and The Hague. Around 1,050 extra rooms in total will be available for students in both cities.

The use of the pill, in combination with genetic factors, can influence experimental psychological research in women. More research is needed into the influence of the pill on mood disorders, concludes psychologist Daniëlle Hamstra. PhD defence on 30 September.

Organisations like the UN and the EU should be given more powers to combat transboundary problems. This is the message of a report published by the Swedish SNS Democracy Council, whose authors include Prof. Jan Aart Scholte of Leiden University. The researchers also wrote the following article.

Leiden chemists have created a new ultrathin membrane only one molecule thick. The membrane can produce a hundred times more power from seawater than the best membranes used today. The researchers have published their findings in Nature Nanotechnology.

For justice to be done after a crime, most people feel that retribution alone is not enough. These are the results of research by Leiden University and the University of Mannheim (Germany). Publication in Plos One.

Citizens underestimate their role, but they really can make a difference, says legal specialist Corinne Dettmeijer-Vermeulen. Combatting injustice is still the mission of this former National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence against Children. She will deliver the Cleveringa lecture…

The number of victims of child abuse is estimated to be higher during the first lockdown compared with a period without a lockdown. This is mainly due to an increase in the number of victims of emotional neglect, including educational neglect and witnessing domestic abuse. Families with children about…

The person who cried out at Dam Square on Remembrance Day in 2010. For Michiel van der Wolf this marked the rise of a new phenomenon: that of ‘confused people’. Because since that Remembrance Day, the number of reports of ‘confused people’ in the Netherlands has increased rapidly in the statistics.…

It’s Circular Economy Week, from 1 to 6 February. But what is it that makes an economy circular? And just how circular is our university? René Kleijn, lecturer on the honours class Circular Economy: from challenge to opportunity, explains.

How tolerant is the Netherlands on the work floor? Jojanneke van der Toorn, Professor of the Workplace Pride Chair, the first in the world dealing exclusively with LGBT inclusion in the workplace, answers questions on the International Day against Racism and Discrimination.