How do you fulfill a chairing position during a team meeting? How do you visualise a dataset for a presentation? How do you write the introduction to a scientific article? All Science students can find the answers to these and many more questions in the 100+ skill modules on the digital Science Skills…

An extra-long procession with musical accompaniment will mark the beginning of the university’s 450th birthday celebrations on 7 February.

For some it will sound like music to their ears, but for others is may sound less appealing: now the advice on working from home has changed, we can once again go to the office. After a period of working from home, which for some lasted almost two years (with maybe a short break), it can be a big transition.…

Read where to go with your questions.

From once controversial scientific works and historical bibles, to personal shopping lists and clothing bills. The 17th-century Bibliotheca Thysiana and the archive of the collector Johannes Thysius exhibit both the intellectual and everyday life as it was three hundred years ago. Now a brand-new digital…

Over 20,000 students, lecturers, administrators, support staff and many others protested on 25 November against the plans to make billions of cuts to higher education. Students and staff from Leiden University also travelled to The Hague to voice their objections to the disastrous plans.

The University believes it is important that you are happy in your work. This is why we gauge your opinion with the personnel monitor. We use the results to make improvements that enhance job satisfaction.

If you travel abroad for your work, you can claim expenses for lodging, meals, minor costs and transport. The amount reimbursed depends on the country you travel to. You must have approval to travel from your manager.

I recently went to the anniversary celebration of The Meeting Point, and the stories the refugee students told made a huge impression on me. The Meeting Point helps students from different backgrounds feel part of our university community.

Leadership

GROW: Conversations on Performance, Development and Well-being (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn). The new GROW interviews offer an opportunity to speak openly with each other about your work, development and well-being.

Transferable skills, Personal development

Research, Transferable skills

Our communication strategy emphasises the achievements of Leiden University researchers and students and supports our mission and core values.

On 27 May 2025, the Executive Board decided to establish a Committee on Human Rights / Conflict Zones.

Maryam Alqassab, an assistant professor at ICLON (Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching), helps train new PhD supervisors and knows how demanding the role can be. When asked to contribute to an online handbook for PhD supervisors, she didn’t hesitate: ‘Everything supervisors do or are involved…

Spui Campus is almost ready to open its doors. In the place where the iconic V&D department store started trading back in 1928, thousands of students will soon be attending lectures. The building has undergone an extensive renovation that is sensitive to its history.

How can parents avoid passing on stress and mental health problems to their children? Professor of Stress-Related Psychopathology Bernet Elzinga develops simple interventions to help both parents and young people. For her research, she has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honour…

With the number of externally funded research projects at the university on the rise and funding bodies setting ever-stricter requirements, it can be challenging to keep track of budgets, deadlines and reporting. The new Vidatum tool makes managing external projects easier for researchers and research…

Leiden University's Kiem grant is designed to give new interdisciplinary ideas from staff a boost. Thanks to the grant, Jelle Brands and Nathan Saucier were able to test the research possibilities of a hyper-realistic 3D environment. With promising results.

A gold carpet welcomed students, staff and curious locals into Spui Campus on Monday 2 February. The V&D department store has been transformed into a unique open knowledge centre.

The outbreak of coronavirus has radically changed our life and work. We have had to work, teach and conduct research from home. How has coronavirus changed your work? What do you miss most? And what is keeping you going? We asked a few colleagues.

Who will represent us on the university’s participation councils? The results of the 2021 university elections have been announced. New representatives will be joining many of the participation bodies at the university – the faculty councils, the employee councils and the University Council.

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.

Three Leiden researchers have been awarded a prestigious Vici grant, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) announced on Tuesday. Two of the researchers work at Leiden University and the third at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

The university offers a number of facilities for collaborating with colleagues within and outside the University. This may involve sharing information or collaborating on documents. Depending on your objective, you can choose from the following collaboration tools.

An important part of the Leiden Leadership Programme (LLP) is the practical assignment that students are given by a partner organisation. How does this benefit the organisations? Two Leiden partners talk about working with the students.

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.

If you wish to start a project site for a temporary Leiden University project, or if you need a new domain name, please apply to the Functional Web Management department.

The English-language interdisciplinary minor ‘AI and Society’ explores the role of artificial intelligence in our society. The interdisciplinary nature of the minor is proving beneficiary for students and lecturers alike. We sit in during a class.

Reserve a seat, pack a nice lunch and leave a little extra time if you need to change trains. These tips come from colleagues who recently travelled by train for work. They found it a comfortable, productive and greener way to travel. ‘Just give it a try, to me it’s not very different from working from…

As an experiment, student Alicia Cai relied solely on AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude for supervision while writing her thesis. What lessons were learned?

Career development, Transferable skills

Personal development, Transferable skills

Communication, Outreach, Transferable skills

Research, Transferable skills

From the workload to sustainability: the University Council helps decide on important topics. In the University elections – from 9 to 13 May – you can vote for who will represent you on the Council. Three questions to the three lead candidates of the staff parties: PhDoc, Universitair Belang and Leidse…

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

This page provides more information about the mentor-tutor system at Leiden University. What is it? What are its objectives? Where can mentors, tutors, and coordinators find more information and teaching materials?

The Countering Syndemic Vulnerability project supports communities by identifying and tackling clusters of social factors and health problems. The project works with residents and professionals in the Moerwijk district in The Hague and the Stevenshof district in Leiden.

Every year, Leiden University hosts the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture to mark International Women’s Day. This year, historian Nadia Bouras will speak about academic freedom, class and being a woman in academia. And that is just as relevant to men, says lecturer and organiser Looi van Kessel.

A culture change is needed within the University in the area of Recognition and Rewards, and a start can now be made on bringing about that change. The Recognition and Rewards steering group has published a change vision and recommendations people can start to work with. Their advice has been welcomed…

From a vegan community kitchen to a green framework for drug development: sustainability became more visible in everyday campus life at Leiden University in 2025.

Leiden University gives its students the opportunity to assemble part of their programme themselves, which enables them to choose their own areas of emphasis. One way in which they can do this is to follow a minor, a coherent package of courses worth 30 credits.

Research, Transferable skills

After an intensive tender procedure, Leiden University and the Municipality of Oegstgeest have chosen Dura Vermeer for a new housing development with plenty of affordable homes in Nieuw Rhijngeest-Zuid. Dura Vermeer seeks to create a green and playful neighbourhood with welcoming public spaces as its…

In the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, students from across the globe build and race boats powered by sustainable energy. Leiden public administration student Damiaan Bertrams has entered with a team from Delft University of Technology.

Many people have fled to the Netherlands since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, including students. But even before this war, students with refugee backgrounds were eager to study at Leiden University. How does the University help young people from various backgrounds find their way around the Dutch…