Three Leiden professors have recently been awarded the most prestigious scientific accolade in the Netherlands: Maria Yazdanbakhsh and Marc Koper have been awarded a Spinoza Prize and Judi Mesman a Stevin Prize. They received their prizes on 13 October.

Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and the Erasmus University Rotterdam have worked together for many years on numerous aspects of teaching, research and valorisation. In 2012 this collaboration was formalised in the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities strategic alliance.

How can Europe lead the way in vaccine development that is fast and for all? To answer this pressing question, Professor of Vaccinology Meta Roestenberg is holding a panel session on 14 July at the EuroScience Open Forum in Leiden.

Explore inequality and diversity issues with research internships at top organizations. Unravel challenges and make an impact today!

Are you curious about other disciplines and would you like to develop yourself more broadly alongside your bachelor studies? Discover the Honours College!

Do you feel the Honours College is right for you? Find out here what admission requirements you need to meet and how to apply.

Want to develop your ideas and entrepreneurial skills? PLNT and Luris can help.

There are countless ways to meet new people, at your own study programme and faculty, or elsewhere within the university.

Course

For many students, a summer school abroad is a fun and useful way to spend the summer. This year, because of the travel restrictions, many summer schools were held online. There was no less interest from students though. What is it like to study in a different country, but digitally? Or to travel abroad…

Do you have broad interests or a passion for a specific subject? Enrich your study period and delve into another field with a Bachelor Honours Class!

On 11 July 2024, a gathering was held to celebrate the start of the construction of the new University Sports Centre (USC). Rugby players and a pole dancer from USC Leiden played a role in the celebration. A video was also shown, giving a whistle-stop tour of the new building.

The new interdisciplinary bachelor's program in Science for Sustainable Societies starts in the 2025-2026 academic year.

From historical understandings to new treatments: during the Public Day of the Leiden Institute for Brain & Cognition, curious visitors learned how rapidly research into brain disorders is evolving. ‘I found the neurosurgery and the research on organoids on chips particularly fascinating.’

Professor Sarah de Rijcke will become the new Rector Magnificus on the Executive Board of Leiden University on 15 January 2026. She will succeed Professor Hester Bijl, who will become Rector Magnificus at Delft University of Technology.

Leiden University has six top bachelor's programmes according to Keuzigids universiteiten 2025, a consumer guide to university programmes. This puts Leiden in fourth place of the broad-based universities.

Who wouldn’t want their own episode of Het Klokhuis? Researchers Milica Nikolic and Chris Riddell are in the running for the Klokhuis Wetenschapsprijs, which aims to introduce a broad and young audience to scientific research in the Netherlands.

In the academic year 2025-2026, the project 'Sea-ing Africa: Tracing Legacies and Engaging Future Promises of 'Big' Infrastructure Projects in Port City Regions in Ghana and Morocco' will be pleased to host students from all three tracks of the MSc Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology and…

In the Honours College course 'From Research to Children's Books', students learned how to translate scientific insights into accessible language. This also included writing their own stories for children. After the solitary process of writing and editing, it was time to put their skills into practi…

The Schoof cabinet has presented its budget. As expected, higher education is facing severe cuts. In the coming period, the Executive Board will regularly look at the consequences of what it deems an irresponsible policy.

How do you explain loss, social inequality or mental health to children without losing sight of the gravity of the subject? The new Honours course From Research to Children’s Book, taught by Annelies van Bentum, challenges students to make complex academic themes accessible through the medium of children’s…

Leiden University has seven top-rated bachelor's programmes according to Keuzigids universiteiten 2026, a consumer guide to university programmes. This is based on the National Student Survey.

What practical steps can we take to resolve cross-border claims to looted art and prevent illicit trafficking in cultural goods? That's what the European Parliament asked Leiden legal scholar Evelien Campfens. Her advice: develop a registration system, issue art with a ‘passport’ and set up a European…

Leiden University has recently received various petitions from students and staff concerning our ties with Israeli universities. We have also held extensive discussions with the University Council in response to questions raised on the subject. We think it important that our partners and research projects…

End Fossil, Open Leiden and Students for Palestine incorrectly claim that a meeting will be held with the Executive Board on Friday 11 April. This statement is to correct these claims and clarify the situation.

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Leiden University will start a new two-year English-taught master’s programme in Population Health Management (PHM) on 1 September 2021. The programme, which has been given the green light by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO),…

The coronavirus pandemic has had us working and studying at home, and this has had a positive effect on Leiden University’s sustainability results. This is apparent from the university’s new Sustainability Report 2020. The report also shows that nearly all the targets from the Environmental Policy Plan…

The 'Groot Nederlands Student Kampioenschap' student games have been held for the first time in two cities, Delft and The Hague. To make this happen our Campus The Hague worked together with The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Inholland University of Applied Sciences. Three students look back…

As a result of the current corona measures, attendance at the Opening of the Academic Year on 6 September will be restricted to a maximum of 75 persons. The ceremony can, however, be viewed online by taking part in a video wall.

In June the Final Festival took place, the closing event of the 'Social Science Lab'. New participants of Honours College Science and Society presented their solution for a current social problem.

Healthy and active Leideners and a smoke-free generation. These are the main ambitions of the Leiden Health and Wellbeing Agreement that was signed online by 40 partners on 19 April. Leiden University will also be drawing on its broad expertise to help realise the ambitions.

The Corstens Commission that investigated whether there are any grounds for the rumours of antisemitism at the Faculty of Law has found no indication whatsoever for such expressions. This also applies to the professor in question. This is evident from the report that the commission chaired by Professor…

Who knows more about environmental governance: a professor of natural resource governance or a local shaman in the remote uplands of Myanmar?

Technology, medical knowledge, social measures and the design of the living environment: all these needed to achieve a healthier society. In a series of interviews, 14 researchers from Zuid-Holland, including from Leiden University, argue for an integrated care approach.

Gert Oostindie, Emeritus Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, is this year’s Cleveringa Professor at Leiden University. He was appointed by the University on 4 October. In his inaugural lecture on 24 November, entitled Courage and Disregard, he will talk about (academic) freedom in relation…

Imagine getting a notification on your mobile phone with your personal code for impending mental health problems or even depression: yellow, orange, or red. Science fiction? Not for scientist Eiko Fried. 'There is a real chance we can prevent some mental health problems before they occur.' Want to participate…

Language is omnipresent: when you talk, app or meet in Teams. Understanding how we communicate with one another and what communication does to us is essential. In her inaugural lecture, Nivja de Jong will call to redress the balance between the sciences and the humanities.

A diverse (ad hoc) committee will advise Leiden University’s Executive Board on its exhibitions policy in a broad sense, with a special focus on the painting by Rein Dool in the Academy Building.

Leiden University, together with the Open University and Universities of the Netherlands, will take up residence in the Spui building at Grote Marktstraat 48-50/Spui 3 in downtown The Hague from 2025. The partners signed the leases on 7 November.

When do we say violence was used in an incident? The answer may seem obvious at first. But interim results from a study by Jolien van Breen show that Dutch people are labelling events in increasingly broad contexts as violent.

‘Let’s get everyone home safely!’ This was the message of an estimated 750 demonstrators as they marched through the centre of Leiden on 18 November.

The Executive Board has appointed Ineke Sluiter and Arnold Tukker as distinguished professors at Leiden University.

Leiden Mayor Peter Heijkoop visited the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Science on Monday,

Dutch politics is becoming increasingly polarised, and forming stable governments seems more difficult than ever. In the heat of the election race, a psychologist and a historian offer cool-headed advice.

Organisation

A new government, conflicts around the world and obviously a lot of science: these are the five stories about Leiden University that you enjoyed reading in 2024.

How do you get citizens more involved in energy transition projects? This is the central question of the new transdisciplinary research project EmPowerEd. As a consortium partner, Leiden University is focusing on effective and inclusive collaboration between citizens, municipalities and industry.

'Psychologists think I’m a linguist but linguists think I’m a psychologist,' says cognitive neuroscientist Xiaochen Zheng. With the Veni grant she will be able to bring these two fields of research closer together. Read her answers to five questions.