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…

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 Hague…

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.

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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Monday 5 September the eighth edition of the interdisciplinary Minor Sustainable Development started. With 65 students coming from more than 20 different disciplines we've a record number of students and backgrounds.

Language courses from February onwards

Leiden University has started a collaboration with the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland. The project includes the exchange of students and staff, joint research, and the organisation of seminars and conferences. Besides Leiden, the universities of Copenhagen, Newcastle and Innsbruck are also…

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.

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.

El CID, the University introduction week, has begun! We spoke on Sunday evening to the first new arrivals who had come to Leiden to spend the night at the University Sports Centre. New students can sleep here all this week as well as at the ice rink or in a student house.

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.

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.

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

MOOC Music & Society

Ten scientists from Leiden University will receive a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. This will allow them to launch their own project, form their own research team and implement their best ideas.

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

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.

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.…

Is polder rice a feasible circular alternative for cows on peatland? A pilot experiment started this week. On May 22nd, researchers from Leiden University and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) planted roughly 3,000 rice plants on the Polderlab near Leiden. The researchers want to test rice as a…

The Municipality of The Hague called on researchers to come up with a proposal for an innovative research project on problems big cities face such as energy transition. Four of the five projects that have been granted funding come from researchers from Leiden University.

On the new website Athena’s Angels, four female Leiden professors address the unequal treatment of women in academia. ‘Since we launched the website, our mailboxes have exploded,’ says Judi Mesman, Professor of Child and Family Studies and one of the initiators.

Gathering and distributing patient data can make an important contribution to containing the coronavirus. But if we want to be successful, we need better data. With this objective in mind, Leiden data stewards have joined the Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN).

The NWO just announced the results of the Vrije Competitie proposals. Paul Smith, professor at the French department is, as a member of LUCAS, one of three scholars within the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University who has been awarded this grant.

The third edition of the International Leiden Leadership Programme (ILLP) has kicked off with a successful opening seminar at the Sterrewacht.

Researchers from the LUMC and the Universities of Granada and Almería have found a gut bacterium that is associated with stronger muscles in people and mice. Their findings, published in the journal Gut, hint at the potential for new probiotics to support muscle strength and healthy ageing.

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…

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

With a barbecue at the Scheveningen beach the Leiden Science Buddy Programme was kicked off on 7 August. In this first round, 64 new international students are paired to current students. These buddies will do their very best to make the new students feel right at home in Leiden.

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…

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.

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.

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

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.