The Academic Language Centre provides a wide range of English courses. The courses differ with regard to level, content and frequency.

On Friday July 10th LUC The Hague marked another milestone and challenge surmounted by hosting its first fully-fledged online graduation ceremony for the class of 2020.

An international team of researchers led by astronomers from Leiden University (the Netherlands) has produced the first sharp radio maps of the universe at low frequencies. Thanks to a new calibration technique, they bypassed the disturbances of the Earth's ionosphere. They used the new method to study…

No less than four Leiden research teams have been awarded a grant by NWO. On 27 July NWO honoured 21 applications in the Open Competition ENW-XL. NWO awards the grants to consortia in the exact and natural sciences who are doing unconnected fundamental research that is 'driven by curiosity'.

Migration and crime are in the spotlight in society. Within the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, research in this area has strongly developed in recent years. The concept of Crimmigration is central to this.

The municipality of Leiden aims for circular construction, but how do you reconcile that with the growing demand for housing? For the Kennisatelier Duurzaamheid, master's students from Industrial Ecology are investigating whether the municipality can build enough houses up to 2030 and still use half…

The whole world is waiting anxiously for sufficient supplies of coronavirus vaccines. As Launch Navigator at Pfizer, alumnus Dennis de Mik must help ensure that the Netherlands receives 19.8 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. How is he going about this and how has his Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences…

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy regularly updates its digital bookshelf with recommendations of recent books on diplomacy, global affairs, and international studies.

'Refugees often have to run for their lives. In Leiden, we run to raise money to support them and to contribute to their education.' With these words Leiden biology student and and former refugee from Congo Lesage Munyemana, calls out to sponsor teams for the Leiden Science Run.

After three years of courses, exercises, debating and reflecting, Honours College students received their certificate during a festive ceremony. Even more than with the certificate as such, attendees were pleased with the way Honours enables students to deal with an increasingly complex world.

PhD candidate Jianhong Zhou aimed to better understand whether and how plant species adapt to environmental changes. She developed two databases that she used to analyze how easily or difficultly plants adapt to changing conditions. Zhou defended her PhD thesis on 4 September.

Doctors are there to diagnose and treat people. But sometimes a diagnosis can’t be made or doctors differ in opinion. Luckily, Alireza Mashaghi Tabari and his research team have developed a new framework to solve medical diagnostic problems. This framework can also be applied to many other research…

On 11 May the House of Representatives voted in favour of a law that will enable some sectors to reopen sooner than planned with the aid of test certificates. Political philosopher Josette Daemen is critical of the new legislation. ‘Just because we get used to measures doesn’t make them desirable.’

In the new board game Epoch – Early Inventors you explore the prehistoric landscape. You gather food and raw material to develop tools and skills, and you try to appease the gods. Dr Maikel Kuijpers was involved in its development from the start and he is very happy with the result. “There is a lot…

From 2029, childcare in the Netherlands will be almost free for working parents. Egbert Jongen, Professor of Economics, spoke with Nieuwsuur about the missed opportunities for non-working parents: 'Participation in formal childcare is particularly beneficial for children from disadvantaged families.…

How did you get to where you are now? This is a key question in the Academic Life Course board game, developed by and for academics. ‘In a normal working week we hardly ever talk about the career choices we make, but with this game, we do.’

In the coming decades, more than 2 million social housing units in the Netherlands will receive an upgrade in insulation and heating, in order to increase energy efficiency. To study the environmental, financial and social impact of this energy transition, a team of scientists from three universities…

Leiden researchers have developed an app that doctors can use to more easily determine the right dosage of medication for corona patients. At the moment, doctors are prescribing many existing kinds of medication to patients. Using the app, they can determine a safe and effective dosage.

Just one year ago, nobody would have given Trump a cat's chance in the US presidential elections. Now he will be the next President of the United States. Professor of Journalism and New Media Jaap de Jong explains the rhetoric that has got Trump so far.

In the past decades terrorists have regularly surprised us with unexpected and spectacular attacks, such as the one on the World Trade Centre in New York. How can intelligence services stay one step ahead of them? Consult Charles Darwin and Steven Spielberg is the advice of terrorism expert Yannick…

Are you keen to beat your friends or colleagues and win the European Championship football pool? Statistician Marjolein Fokkema has some tips that might increase your chances.

While offshore wind farms generate clean and green energy, scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the harmful impact they may have on marine life. To get a better overview of these impacts and to find the best locations for future wind farms, environmental scientist Yali Si and her colleagues…

'Consider languages in their shared context.' That is the message of Professor and Arabist Beatrice Gründler, who will receive an honorary doctorate from Leiden University on 8 February. ‘I would like people to learn that Arabic history has a close connection with Europe.’

Dutch people are far more law-abiding than they might like to think. And they are very different from the Belgians in that regard. The different approaches of the two governments towards the coronavirus crisis, for example, can be explained from the history of both countries since the Middle Ages. Historians…

On Tuesday 19 March Major General (ret) Patrick Cammaert gave a guest lecture about peacekeeping to the students from Leiden University Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. The lecture was made possible by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA).

Childhood trauma can have a lifelong effect. Many therapists do not dare to confront these vulnerable patients with their past because they are concerned that the patients will be unable to cope. Research has now shown that exposure therapy can be helpful for this group of people.

Scientists' computers are now full of complicated 3D models, but no standard has yet been developed for exchanging the data. A new database should change this. External PhD student Liselore Tissen is receiving a grant to contribute to this on behalf of Leiden University (and TU Delft). ‘It will be great…

Mathematical biologists from Leiden have developed a model that helps to explain how the spine and vertebrae, among other things, form during embryonic development. The same process, the other way around, plays a key role in cancer metastasis. Publication in iScience.

This academic year, we are welcoming several international students who have started studying at FGGA with a prestigious scholarship. We asked them about their background, their reasons for applying, and the application process. Congratulations to all students who have been awarded a scholarship!

Transferring poo from healthy donors to the intestines of chronically ill people has beneficial effects on these recipients’ gut bacteria, also in the longer term. This is the conclusion of research by the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Netherlands Donor Feces Bank (NDFB).

A plant-based diet could improve the resilience of our food system. Moving to such a diet in the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) alone could replace almost all the production losses from Russia and Ukraine. That’s what an international team of researchers conclude in Nature Food. Leiden…

A practical checklist with legal, technical and ethical points of view will from now on guide the data scientists when working in Artificial Intelligence: the AI Impact Assessment (AIIA). It has been developed by ECP (Platform of the Information Society) and nine other partners, among them the Leiden…

Ijeoma Uchegbu is Professor of Pharmacy at University College London (UCL). As a female scientist of colour, she was initially reluctant to play an active role in the university’s diversity policy. Until, that is, she had a radical change of heart: ‘I knew it; I had to become an evangelist.'

The centre of our Galaxy is so dark and dense that it is almost impossible to observe what is inside. By catching the rare hypervelocity stars that are ejected from it, Elena Maria Rossi aims to unveil the mysterious environment around the supermassive black hole inside. But she’ll also be solving another…

“United Nations peacekeeping is a proven investment in global peace, security, and prosperity. Together, let us pledge to do all we can to enable that mission to succeed”. – Secretary-General António Guterres

The Caribbean as we know it today is fundamentally a product of colonial activity and globalisation. Practically everyone that inhabits the Caribbean has ancestors from different continents due to colonial activity, which profoundly affects the area to this day. Caribbean writers, both in the Caribbean…

Leiden is a real student city. We will tell you more about the student life in Leiden. Join one of our study associations and make some new connections!

We would like to tell you more about the exciting student life in Leiden.

The Centre for Digital Heritage undertakes collaborative international research in the field of Digital Heritage. It is an initiative of the University of York.

When you apply for admission, you’ll be asked to submit several documents. The documents that are required depend on your educational background and chosen study programme. For details of the documents required by each study programme, refer also to the programme-specific information.

Want to continue developing yourself and boost your career at the same time? Leiden University offers a range of lectures, master classes and courses at academic level.

LUCDH is creating a community of LU scholars researching in Digital Humanities. A selection of their DH Projects are listed on this page. If you are an Affiliated member and would like your project listed here or would like to be an Affiliated member, please email us at lucdh@hum.leidenuniv.nl

How to get involved in sustainability? Read more about four projects that Leiden University helped realise in the past few years.

How are interests embedded and experienced in daily life and to what extent can their origin and development be understood in terms of this contextualization?

The Terrorism and Political Violence (TPV) research group focuses on understanding and addressing one of today’s most pressing security challenges: terrorism. Drawing from their academic expertise, the group offers a wide range of educational programmes designed for students, professionals, and a global…

SALTSWAT -- a project which combines the Spaces for Active Learning & Teaching and the Support wtih Active Teaching -- began in Mid-2019 and is running in pilot until the summer of 2020. The purpose of the project is to find answers to the question of how to systematically accelerate 'active teaching…

COI@Leiden organises activities and events throughout the year. These include a monthly seminar series on topics relating to conflict resolution and PhD labs to assist COI students in developing their research skills.

Jews and Christians in the Middle East

The programmes offered by the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in The Hague are closely linked to the defining image of The Hague as a city of international justice, peace and security as well as the centre of Dutch public administration and international governance.