What do you do if you suspect someone around you is struggling with suicidal thoughts but you aren’t sure how to bring it up? And how can we support loved ones who’ve experienced trauma? In this episode clinical psychologist Joanne Mouthaan shares valuable insights on how to approach these topics and…

Facility

In Bronze Age Europe many bronze objects such as axes, swords and jewels were deliberately left at specific spots in the landscape. PhD research by Leiden archaeologist Marieke Visser shows that these practices were expressions of people’s relationship with the world around them. ‘It was a completely…

Facility

Different groups of hominins probably learned from one another much earlier than was previously thought, and that knowledge was also distributed much further. A study by archaeologists at Leiden University on the use of fire shows that 400,000 years ago knowledge and skills must already have been exchanged…

After nearly a year-long process, the new collegial institute boards within our faculty's institutes are ready to begin. This marks the implementation of a new, modern, and contemporary way of management. Nearly all roles within the institute boards have been filled, with recruitment for some positions…

The Institute of Public Administration is launching the Leiden Governance Programme: an exclusive educational programme for experienced practitioners with an eye out for the public interest. The programme will start in April with two unique modules (in Dutch) that focus on collaborating successfully…

Two research projects focused on democracy and citizen collectives have been awarded grants through the 2024 round of the National Science Agenda’s (NWA) ‘Onderzoek op Routes door Consortia (ORC)’. Each project will receive around €6.8 million to get started immediately.

Although the official start of the academic year has to wait for another fortnight, Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) welcomed the Class of 2024 to the Anna van Bueren campus this week. The new cohort of 204 incoming students will spend the next three years studying different majors and minors…

A new administrative culture. Renewed vigour. More transparency. Will it become reality with the new government? And how do you go about achieving it? By all of us striving to change together: not just politicians, but also stakeholders, civil servants, media, and civilians. That was the conclusion…

The introductory meeting of the new evening track Management and Consultancy (MSc Management Public Sector) was held on Thursday 3 February at Wijnhaven. Prof. dr. Frits van der Meer, in charge of the professional Public Administration master programme, welcomed the first cohort of students together…

The Academic Language Centre is organising an introduction to Ukrainian with the Russian Studies/Russian and Eurasian Studies programmes. This six-part course is meant primarily for people who are in contact with refugees from Ukraine.

De collegereeks over het Nederlandse crisismanagementstelstel gaat vrijdag 26 mei van start. Lector crisisbeheersing bij het NIPV (Nederlands Instituut Publieke Veiligheid) Menno van Duin trapt af en geeft vast een voorproefje over het eerste college.

The decolonisation war in Indonesia was violent partly because the Dutch military operated on the conviction that ‘an uprising had to be forcibly suppressed.’ This what historian Christiaan Harinck from the KITLV discovered in his PhD research.

Education

Five researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant of on average 1.5m euros enables researchers who show potential to start their own project, lead a research team and implement their best ideas.

Rianne Bouwman recently started as policy officer for education.

After seven months of hard work, the participants in the Research Traineeship Programme concluded their research on Friday 2 September with a pitch and a poster presentation.

Connecting scientific fields, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. What did the university achieve in 2024? A small sample.

Medewerkers van de Universiteit Leiden trappen maandag 10 maart de estafettestaking af van de Nederlandse universiteiten tegen de kabinetsbezuinigingen.

The Atelier pilot officially got underway at Leiden Law School on Thursday 6 February 2025. Four groups, each with a maximum of 18 students, have started the workshops.

Astronomers led by Simon Portegies Zwart used simulations to reconstruct how three stars were ejected from the star cluster R136, 60,000 years ago. The analysis reveals that five stars were involved in the event in the Tarantula Nebula.

The interdisciplinary, English-taught minor ‘Violence Studies’ looks at violence from very diverse scientific perspectives. What are the benefits from this approach? Students and lecturers evaluate: ‘This minor’s a goldmine’.

Research

Today, anyone wanting a new look for their living room watches a home decorating programme or buys an interior design magazine. In the eighteenth century, people went to an upholstry specialist, who would provide you with new wall coverings, curtains and much-needed accessories. PhD candidate Aagje…

Leiden PhD candidate Jo-Anne Verschoor discovered that nearly twenty percent of the bacterial strains she studied could degrade plastic, though they needed some encouragement to do so. ‘Bacteria are just like people,’ says Verschoor. Her research was published in the journal Communications Biology,…

Historians recently started preliminary research on Leiden University’s role in colonialism and historical slavery. Our knowledge about this is too limited and fragmented. They are looking with fresh eyes at Leiden’s archives and collections. An interview with historians Alicia Schrikker and Ligia G…

Historian Eric Storm discusses how nationalism shapes our world in Princeton’s UP Ideas podcast.

Armed with sunglasses, a thick layer of sunscreen and several bottles of water, over 3,300 students have arrived in Leiden for their introduction week. The start of the 55th EL CID happened to be on the hottest day of the year.

A new academic year means new courses. And that inevitably requires all sorts of new skills: academic writing, searching for sources, setting up a research project... The Science Skills Platform is packed with useful information. This way, you can easily help your students on their way.

Identifying novel antibiotic compounds to tackle antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Researchers from Leiden University and VU Amsterdam will unite through a project now funded by NWO’s Open Technology Programme (OTP), which awarded the collaboration nearly one million euros.

In the coming academic year, the Psychology programme will have 7 teaching weeks per block instead of 8. Also, the exam weeks will be shifted slightly. What will be the impact of this new measure on workload for students and staff?

Abuse of power, sexually transgressive behaviour and non-funny jokes: they all came up in the stage show Mindlab, which was performed at the end of September to get staff of the Faculty of Humanities to talk about undesirable and transgressive behaviour.

Work has begun on an accommodation complex for international PhD candidates and postdocs at the Leiden Bio Science Park.

February 8 saw the launch of the Medical Delta ‘Sustainable Hospitals’ Interdisciplinary Thesis Lab. The research projects will touch on different aspects of healthcare. The students hope they will be able to offer practical solutions to make hospitals greener.

In early 2026, two new programme directors will begin their roles at FWN. Joost Broekens will take charge of the bachelor’s programme in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI), while Sander van Kasteren will become programme director of the MSc in Life Science and Technology (LST).

It is more myth than reality that people with migration backgrounds commit more crime. Leiden has successfully tackled anti-social behaviour by Moroccan youths, says former mayor Henri Lenferink. Good education forms the basis of a healthy and safe society, says ‘crimmigration’ researcher' Maartje van…

In the past decade many academic journals have started to require that researchers provide evidence of ethical review when submitting papers, for example when working with human participants or human remains.. In order to support researchers to ensure their projects are able to meet these expectations,…

Assignments, work groups, deadlines and the first exams in sight! The Get Started campaign of Leiden University Libraries aims to help new students to find their way in the library. We can use the help of teachers for this campaign.

Research

Education, Research

With an ERC grant, anthropologist Jasmijn Rana will explore how outdoor groups address the lack of diversity and how ethno-racial inequalities are experienced and resisted in Europe's outdoor spaces.

Leiden University is known for its pioneering research and teaching. By offering education to professionals (lifelong learning), we want to bring this research and teaching expertise to the field and thus further increase our impact on society. With the aid of a grant from Leiden University Academy,…

The Faculty of Humanities is launching the Programme Standards project with the aim of distributing the teaching effort more transparently and fairly. In June, the Faculty Council approved the Programme Standards project on the condition that it would include enough evaluation moments, a condition that…

The stadtholder’s court in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands has long been underestimated. Real courts and the associated court culture were to be found elsewhere in Europe. PhD candidate Quinten Somsen is trying to reverse this image. ‘The stadtholder’s court was actually very lively.’

Organisation

Some children start life with a disadvantage. Sometimes even before they are born. A new research project involving Professor Wessel Kraaij of Leiden University investigates how data science can help give these children a good start in life.

From the Open Days and Student for a Day events to the option of following Online Experience modules: the university tries to prepare prospective students for their new study programme as well as possible. In this context, the bachelor’s programmes Dutch Language and Culture and English Language and…