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…

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.

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…

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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Graig Klein, assistant professor at the Institute of Security of Global Affairs (ISGA), has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for his project TERGAP. With this 1.500.000 euro grant Klein and his research team will investigate terrorist groups’ decision-making and strategic…

Buried beneath a Suffolk forest, archaeologists have uncovered the earliest known human-made fire. A fire that was sparked 400,000 years ago. This stunning UK discovery rewrites our evolutionary story, pushing fire-making back by more than 350,000 years. Baked earth, heat-scarred tools and the world’s…

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.

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…

The people who lived in Saqqara, City of the Dead in Egypt, died thousands of years ago, but they are not all that different from us. This is what a study by the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, The Netherlands concludes. If you wanted to prove that you had good taste in ancient Egypt then…

From the end of 2026, drone flights could be tested out of visual range in a special zone above the North Sea. Assistant Professor Benjamyn I. Scott commentys in regional newspaper ‘Leidsch Dagblad’: 'Safety remains paramount in aviation.'

Language courses from February onwards

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.

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…

We talk with Sophia Dittmar about starting a career in Psychology. Dittmar is currently studying the master's specialisation in Economic and Consumer Psychology at Leiden University. We talk about what she learned from her internship, why she switched masters and how to get the most out of an internship.…

The mission in Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan was a formative experience for Dutch soldiers in which many lessons were learned. But most of those lessons have already been forgotten.

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.

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.

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.

Many children have an unhealthy diet and do not get enough exercise. Sanne de Vries wants to help everyone get a healthy start in life.

The powerful Dutch East India Company and West India Company were summoned before the High Court more often than historians have assumed. The complainants varied from competitors, to the Companies' own staff and even poor citizens. This is what Leiden historian Kate Ekama has discovered. PhD defence…

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.

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.

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.

It was long thought that the early development of Japanese children's books served mainly as a propaganda tool of the state: the literature was supposed to have been written to shape children into perfect citizens. PhD student Aafke van Ewijk nuances this image. Children's book writers wanted to have…

The year 2023 saw the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the Wagner Group rebellion and wildfires and floods as all the weather records were smashed. Our most-read stories were about the climate crisis and the elections: here’s the list.

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

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.

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.

On Friday 5 September, to mark our 450th anniversary we celebrated the opening of the faculty year together with the Leiden Revisited alumni event. Combining both annual events was a huge success, especially as staff brought along their family, partner or friends.

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

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) has started vaccinating staff from its intensive care, emergency and COVID departments. Junior doctor Christianne van Lieshout received the first jab on 6 January.

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.

Connecting worlds, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. In that respect, a huge amount happened at Leiden University in 2023.

On 27 september historian Adam Zamoyski held a captivating lecture on his new book Napoleon: the Man behind the Myth. During this lecture, which was an initiative by Polen in Beeld and the Central and Eastern European Studies Center, Zamoyski answered the question: ‘what were the Napoleonic Wars really…

Sex and power are closely linked, and this was certainly true in the former Dutch colonies. PhD student Sophie Rose investigated how sexual and love relationships influenced eighteenth-century power structures there. 'You can see that there was constant fighting over who stood where in the social hi…