There is more and more for students to do. Visit a film festival, follow a workshop or try a sport, for example. But how can you see at a glance what’s on and whether anyone wants to join you? Download the Uni-Life app and find out.

He had been back from Australia for less than 48 hours, but there was no sign of that. Michel Mandjes of MI had the honor of kicking off the very first Tuesday Talks: Science Insights on Tuesday. He did so with a presentation on complex networks.

LUMC and Leiden University will start the new two-year online master's program in Transfusion Medicine and Cellular and Tissue Therapies from October 2023.

Damien van Puyvelde has received funding (over 47.000 euro) from a new Research Council pilot for his study 'Open-source research and the war in Ukraine: intelligence for the people by the people?' We asked the researcher five questions about this project and the opportunities this creates for him.

Leiden University's humanities have one of the top places in the Times Higher Education Rankings. This year, we were placed 26th.

Rodrigo Ochigame’s project explores how AI redefines scientific evidence, aiming to help scientists critically navigate these transformations with the Veni grant.

Anyone who knows Aris Politopoulos will be aware of his passion for teaching. Almost winning the Leiden University Teaching Award in 2020, he is known for his use of digital tools to improve his classes. Now he has been accepted to the Leiden Teacher’s Academy. ‘Here I can meet people with innovative…

For first-year bachelor’s students, it is a well-known phenomenon: student mentors. These older students help newcomers on their way in small groups. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year the choice was made to set up a mentor programme for new master's students as well. We talked to three student…

Many students dread writing a thesis. Master’s student Laura Robustella's practice-based thesis shows that it is well worth the effort. She developed an art exhibition based on her master’s thesis.

In the 2020 presidential elections, voters in several, mostly southern, electoral districts of the United States saw ‘their’ polling stations closed by the local authorities. In order to cast their vote, they had to travel further or use the mail ballot. Media reports and civil rights activitsts often…

In mid-March 2020, the global coronavirus outbreak changed everything in the Netherlands. Staying at home as much as possible and the 1.5 metre rule became the standard. One year on, we reflect on the past year with four Leiden Law School ‘insiders’. What kind of year did they have? And what are their…

Specially for an experiment conducted by Leiden University, public administration experts and water authority officials came together in a laboratory.

Alumnus Nick Hortensius started volunteering at the Leiden International Film Festival (LIFF) in his student days. He has since grown with the festival to become head of programming. How does he look back on his student days? And what can we expect from the festival this year?

Talking about suicide is important, but anything but comfortable. To make this difficult subject easier for students and staff to discuss, the university is organising a campaign week in line with the national campaign ‘1K Z1E J3’ (I see you) being run by Stichting 113 Zelfmoordpreventie (113 is the…

When Professor of Tax Law Jan Vleggeert delivered his inaugural lecture in Leiden University’s Academy Building on 30 October 2020, only 30 people were allowed to attend due to coronavirus measures. On 10 June 2022, Vleggeert was therefore given the opportunity to deliver a lecture to a much larger…

Using 2D materials, physics student Romme van der Kemp developed a nanochip that is extremely small ánd scalable. This is needed to make all kinds of technologies better, faster and smaller. He has been nominated for the FWN Young Talent Award 2023 for his research.

Sarah Cramsey's first book, Uprooting the Diaspora: Jewish Belonging and the "Ethnic Revolution" in Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1936-1946, has won the 2024 Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies.

Leiden University’s digital study environment is being expanded to include the Leiden student portal: a single place where as a student you can find all the information you need to organise your studies.

LUMC Curium and the Dutch National Youth Council (NJR) have been working on integrating young people’s lived experiences of mental health problems in medical research and training. The aim is to broaden doctors' and researchers’ perspectives and improve the care offered.

According to Nivja de Jong, second language acquisition is 'the most fascinating subject in linguistics'. As a recently appointed professor of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy, she studies the question of how best to teach people a new language.

De Verbranders, a podcast produced by PhD candidates Neske Baerwaldt (FdR/VVI) and Wiebe Ruijtenberg (FSW/CAOS), is online! You can now listen to the first episode on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Episodes of the podcast will be introduced in various courses this year.

In 2022, Leiden will be the European City of Science. University lecturer Jaap de Jong has created special assignments for the journalism master's students to celebrate this: they will go into the city to visualise knowledge from the city.

She did not win, but was very happy with her nomination for the Leiden University Thesis Prize. Mara Seisselberg was nominated with her thesis 'The relationship between experiencing a recession during the formative years of an individual's early adulthood and their long-term sentiments towards the EU'.…

Lecture

Security

Since graduating from Leiden Law School with master’s degrees in Jurisprudence & Philosophy of Law and Criminal Law, alumnus Allard Altena now works as a Public Prosecutor at the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. He says, ‘I leave work at the end of each day knowing I’ve done something useful.’

Nearly a year since the abrupt switchover to mostly online learning, the Digital Education seminar gave teaching staff the opportunity to review their experiences. What can stay in 2021 and what must go? Frequently voiced opinions: yes please to digital tools that make lectures more interactive; yes…

After working full-time for twenty-four years, Wendy Tonks decided to enrol in the executive master's in Cyber Security. She now proudly reflects on her time in the programme after receiving a ten for her thesis and graduating summa cum laude. ‘I could not believe it when I got my grade.’

Alex Colling himself calls his bachelor's thesis ‘the highlight of his time in Leiden’. And according to his supervisors, that resulted in an outstanding thesis, with great attention to detail. The Mathematics and Physics student worked on a mathematical description of monopoles: hypothetical particles…

World Heritage status comes at a cost to the local population’s human rights. PhD Candidate Sophie Starrenburg explains the drawbacks of poetic terms such as ‘the cultural heritage of mankind’.

Making friends in a new city can be difficult, which is why the Humanities PopCorner has created the Buddy Programme. The idea is to give international master's students a helping hand in building a social network. Project coordinator Manal Daddah updates us.

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,…

In mid-March 2020, the global coronavirus outbreak changed everything in the Netherlands. Staying at home as much as possible and the 1.5 metre rule became the standard. One year on, we reflect on the past year with four Leiden Law School ‘insiders’. What kind of year did they have? And what are their…

For her bachelor’s thesis, Molecular Science and Technology student Madouc Bergers synthesized her own molecule that can inhibit the breakdown of sugars. Although most students do not even manage to make one building block, Madouc made three. Partly because of this, she has been nominated for the Science…

All Political Science graduates have good reasons to be proud of themselves, having successfully completed their studies and having demonstrated considerable personal growth. This October, fifteen bachelor students can be extra proud: their theses were nominated for a thesis prize. In the class of 2023,…

Developing a digital guest lecture for high school students. Jan Sleutels was immediately enthusiastic when he got asked to do this. The end result? Together with his colleague Maarten Lamers, he created the guest lecture 'Thinking about Artificial Intelligence'.

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.

Simay Çetin won the FSW Master’s Thesis Prize 2021 with her thesis “Interpreting Culture through Embodied Practice: An anthropological study of sexuality among Dutch Women with Turkish Migrant backgrounds”. She was supervised by Prof. dr. Peter Pels. According to the jury is Simay’s thesis not only…

Education

The former outreach team of the Social Resilience and Security programme 'Jonge Wetenschappers' developed a podcastseries (in Dutch) about the online life of today’s youth and the related social challenges that adolescents face.

Microsoft’s new software VALL-E only has to hear a voice for three seconds to be able to imitate it almost perfectly. You can choose which emotion the voice should use and what it should say. Valerie Frissen, Professor by special appointment of Digital Technology and Social Change at eLaw, and Director…

Education

Do young people trust the law? That is what HC Law students are trying to find out. Regular guest speaker and social worker Carlito Jones invited the students to the Bezuidenhout-West neighbourhood centre in The Hague to talk to youth workers and neighbourhood police officers: what do they run into…

Education, Research, Social

Using enslaved people as servants, becoming an administrator in the Dutch West India Company or making uniforms for the colonial army. Many people from Leiden played a role in colonialism and slavery. Historians are conducting preliminary research and finding striking examples.

Few people would associate the name Anton de Kom with Leiden. Yet the Surinamese freedom fighter is the subject of an exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal.

We know we should do it, and we often want to, but… Why is it so hard to live a healthier life? Professor of Behavioural Interventions in Population Health Marieke Adriaanse explains.

In May 2022 Lennart Kruijer succesfully defended his PhD, which he wrote as a member of the VICI Project ‘Innovating Objects’, led by prof. Miguel John Versluys. So succesfully, in fact, that he was awarded the Cum Laude honors. Just a short time later he was awarded a grant and a fellowship to further…

Niels van Leeuwen is enrolled in the Master Public Administration: Economics & Governance. During the first stage of his master, he did an internship in the United States, at the economic affairs department of the Royal Netherlands Consulate General in Chicago. ‘There are more ways that lead to Rome…