In October 2021 the Volkskrant published the article 'Rond de bloedgoudmijnen van Burkina Faso heerst de angst voor terreur' (Around the blood-gold mines of Burkina Faso, the fear of terror rules). In this report Carlijne Vos describes how Burkina Faso is rapidly destabilising. The lucrative gold mines…

Bart Schuurman sheds light on the alarming trend in both the frequence and geographical spread of these incidents with The Parliament Magazine.

International bachelor’s and master’s students started the OWL on Monday morning. During this introduction week they get to know their new university, city and each other.

Lecture, CMGI Brown Bag Seminar

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

On Friday 3 February, all new incoming exchange students for the Spring semester were invited to attend their own Faculty’s introduction session.

Lecture

Over the centuries painters and photographers have depicted students at study in Leiden. An exhibition at the Hortus botanicus reveals the similarities and differences in 450 years of student life.

Struinen in het historische centrum, de faculteit ontdekken en natuurlijk chillen aan het strand. Honderden eerstejaars leren in de HOP-week elkaar en hun nieuwe stad kennen. Voor veel studenten is de week een 'gamechanger'.

Sexual harassment was the theme of the recent annual symposium of student ambassadors to the Leiden-Bollenstreek police in collaboration with the police and the municipality. An extremely important issue to students − if the 100 places being claimed as soon as the symposium was announced was anything…

A safe place to discuss burning social issues such as racism with each other. The student workspace Space to Talk About Race and the Afro Student Association both meet this need and also organise many other activities. Three board members explain why this is necessary.

Tobias Müller, post-doctoral researcher in the field of Terrorism and Political Violence at ISGA, writes how together, religious groups and scientists can be a powerful force for a liveable planet.

Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor in Law and Digital technologies at eLaw, has been appointed an International Research fellow at the Coordinated Research Center in Information Society and Law of the University of Milan in Italy. The aim of the Center is to conduct research on issues related to the…

Histories Connected: Seminar

On a sunny Lammermarkt, thousands of new students gathered to kick off their student life in Leiden at the 56th edition of EL CID.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals the total environmental impact of products or production processes, and EU rules are going to make this even more important.

From chilling on the beach to a speech by the mayor. HOPweek is a speedy way for hundreds of ‘Leiden’ students who are going to be studying in The Hague to get to know each other. Many of them come from abroad. ‘I actually dare to cycle here.’

Taking a Bachelor’s in Security Studies while starting and running two businesses: student Mohamed Sulaiman never stops. But he wouldn’t have it any other way. PLNT The Hague entrepreneurs’ hub is a source of help and inspiration.

Jeroen van Gessel’s lecturers didn’t always have time for extensive feedback on his written assignments. So, together with tech-savvy friend Menno Hahury, he founded Eduface, a startup to develop an AI teaching assistant. ‘The first users now work three times faster.'

The annual New Year Lecture for Honours College Law took place on Friday 17 January. This year’s speaker was Barbara Zwirs, author and former assistant professor in criminology at Leiden Law School. Her lecture got 2025 off to an inspiring start.

‘We want to say something very different from the norm. We are the radicals now.’ Tahir Abbas is lyric about the DRIVE project he will be leading from Leiden University in The Hague. This is a short introduction to the research that will be carried out in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and the United…

Not all sustainable business models have the impact they claim, Leiden researcher Levon Amatuni revealed. Car sharing and phone reuse, for example, have a smaller positive effect than previously thought. Amatuni advises people to ‘pay attention to actual changes in their consumption behaviour rather…

From 1 October onwards, Dennis Claessen and Marcel Schaaf will be the new directors of education of Biology. They will replace Han de Winde. Schaaf will be responsible for the bachelor, while Claessen will mainly focus on the master tracks of Biology. We gave students and the education office the change…

Does a snake die when it bites its lip? Why will a mongoose survive a scorpion’s sting, but we humans perish? These questions occupied the minds of toxin-enthusiasts and Master’s students Biology Jory van Thiel and Roel Wouters. They collected information from many sources and published their findings…

Nano-plastics cause malformations. Meiru Wang, researcher at the Institute of Biology Leiden, looked at the extreme effects polystyrene nano-particles could have, using chicken embryos as a model. Her results were quite alarming. Especially as nano-particles are everywhere. In the air, floating through…

From 25 March to 15 April, the photo exhibition 'NATO and the Netherlands: A Journey' will be on display on the third floor of Wijnhaven.

Michael Kowalski has been appointed as part-time Professor by special appointment of Applied Ethics in Intelligence and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at Leiden University.

Four students who completed the Bachelor's in Security Studies share their experiences. What did they learn? Where did they end up after graduating? And do they still use the skills they acquired during their studies?