By choosing Leiden University, you’ll be choosing to broaden your personal and academic horizons. You’ll be in excellent company too because you’ll be part of an inspiring community of students, lecturers and professors from all over the world. Founded in 1575, ours is the oldest university in the N…

We are convinced that you’ll have a wonderful time at Leiden University, but you don’t have to take our word for it. If you’re looking for objective opinions of what it’s like to study here, listen to what current students and alumni have said about it!

A Student Affairs Front Office employee will explain the main considerations for applying to Leiden University.

Do you want to know more about studying at Leiden University? Find out more about what it is like to study in the Netherlands, how Leiden University supports you through your time as a student here and get to know our amazing student cities of Leiden and The Hague.

Find out all you need to know about a visa and residence permit application with a member of the Admissions Office

Chat with a current MSc International Organisation student at Leiden University and get first-hand insights into the programme, student life, study abroad and application experience.

Chat with a current MSc International Politics student at Leiden University to get firsthand insights into the programme, student life, study abroad and application process.

Explore student life for the MSc International Politics at Leiden University: student associations, social events, extracurricular opportunities, and living in The Hague.

Explore student life for the MSc International Organisation at Leiden University: student associations, events, extracurriculars, and living in The Hague.

Asking the way to the beach in Scheveningen or buying cheese on the market in Leiden. With the new online Dutch & More language course, prospective international students can get to know Dutch in a Leiden setting. The online course is available for international students at Leiden University and starts…

At the OWL faculty day about 150 newcomers met their fellow students and had a chance to check out the study and research facilities at the Faculty of Science. The OWL introduction week is specially for new international bachelor’s and master’s students at Leiden University.

International students who have been awarded a LExS scholarship from Leiden University were welcomed in the Academy Building on 5 September. The 50 students were presented with a certificate symbolising their scholarship.

Twenty-five young people from all over Europe have come to the Netherlands in the week of the Dutch election to act as election observers. They will learn about Dutch politics and observe in polling stations whether the voting is taking place in line with the rules. Two of them are stationed in Leiden.…

Practically the whole world came together on International Cultural Night on 29 November. International students got together on this night organised by Meeting Point for Refugee Students and showed their culture through dance, poetry, film and of course food. A great source of inspiration for fascinating…

At Orientation Week Leiden, a record 1,378 new international students got to know the city and one another. From a cracking karaoke party to fishing plastic out of the canals – see what they got up to in the photos!

With its FestivOWL theme, Orientation Week Leiden (OWL) promises to be one big festival for new international students in Leiden.

Several Dutch universities have said they do not want foreign student numbers to grow any more in some of their degree programmes. They are reaching maximum capacity. We are also alert to this in Leiden, but I see many positive aspects to the intake of international students.

Wednesday morning, the faculty was teeming with newly arrived international students, who will be starting their master’s programme or exchange programme next week. Over 150 students took part in the Introduction Morning of the Faculty of Humanities.

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?

From Afghanistan to South Africa: 1,144 international students, including refugees from Syria, are taking part in the Orientation Week Leiden.

On Saturday 13 October the historical city Leiden was crowded with prospective students visiting the Open Day. They all came to Leiden to orientate themselves towards studying at Leiden University or to ask questions about the content of the bachelor’s programmes. Among them were a lot of international…

Students from no fewer than 26 different countries are visiting Leiden from 25-28 February to discuss the refugee crisis and European integration.

Timo Schmidt and Florian Volz, both International Studies students, have travelled the route many refugees took to reach Europe by bike in the summer of 2016. Through crowdfunding, they want to finance their documentary about this journey. With three days to go, they are at 90% of their target amount…

This week, around 1,200 brand new students from 68 different countries are getting to know each other and their new student city. Orientation Week Leiden (OWL) got off to a good start on sunny Lammermarkt, which was packed with enthusiastic internationals.

An impressive 875 students from all corners of the globe are taking part in Orientation Week Leiden (OWL). After all the lockdowns in their own countries, they’re glad to meet up in real life in Leiden. What do they expect of their studies here?

The number of students enrolled at Leiden University remained stable this year. As at other Dutch universities, the growth in recent years seems to have levelled off. Leiden University is also following the national trend in terms of intake at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. The number of international…

The Van Bergen Prize was awarded to not one, but two initiatives at the Diversity Symposium on 22 January. ‘Leiden City Safari’ is a fun city tour that will help incoming Dutch and international students get to know the city of Leiden – and each other. The interactive ‘OpenUP!’ symposium will invite…

Do you have a creative idea for improving contacts between Dutch and international students? Work out a plan and you could win the Van Bergen Prize and earn 5,000 euros to put your idea into practice. Deadline 22 October.

During the Faculty of Archaeology’s 2018 Field School excavation, in Leiden, two Early Medieval burials were encountered, as well as some house plans. One of the burials was found by Beatriz, an international student from Mexico. “When I found the pelvis bone it was clear that I had found a human sk…

On 27 October 2015, four talented international students from Leiden University/Campus The Hague and the International Institute of Social Studies received the Wim Deetman Scholarships 2015-2016.

For both Dutch and international students, a Humanities degree provides a strong foundation for a career that crosses borders.

The Municipality of Oss is a household name in the world of Dutch archaeology. For fifty years, Leiden archaeologists, in collaboration with residents of Oss, have been uncovering the history of the municipality. 2024 is the archaeological year of Oss! In a series of interviews we look back on fifty…

Around the world, there is a growing movement to decolonise university curricula, with both students and educators seeking to disrupt existing epistemic hierarchies within higher education. This research project aims to unravel what decolonising means in general and what it means for the International…

The two-year Advanced MSc IRD programme offers you a unique blend of academic education in international relations and political science with practical graduate education and training in international negotiation and diplomacy.

Would you like to teach at a secondary school, but don't yet have a teaching qualification and are not yet proficient in Dutch? ICLON Leiden University is developing a special programme for internationals.

Building on the recent initiative to truly globalize the field of international relations, this book provides an innovative interrogation of regionalism.

Archaeolandscapes International is an educational and scientific not-for-profit organisation with the objective to promote non-destructive prospecting methods for archaeological investigations.

Discover how to prepare for the MSc International Organisation at Leiden University: orientation activities, academic resources, visa guidance, and student support services.

Prepare for the MSc International Politics at Leiden University: orientation sessions, academic resources, visa guidance and student support – everything you need before you start.

International Relations and European Politics is one of the three organisational clusters of the Institute of Political Science.

At a time of urgent threats to both the planet and multilateralism, Brian McGarry (Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies) has published a new volume on the past and future of international environmental law.

Amy Strecker assesses the institutional framework for landscape protection, analyses the interplay between landscape and human rights, and links the etymology and theory of landscape with its articulation in law.

Study information, Online Experience