Dr Kabir Duggal, who recently obtained his PhD at Leiden University, has been awarded the

On Thursday 21 September the first monthly ILS lunch of the academic year took place. Prof. Jannemieke Ouwerkerk, from the Department for Criminal Law and Criminology, presented her research on “The Exercise of EU Criminalisation Powers after Lisbon”, showing an insight in the motives behind the harmonization…

The Editorial Board is pleased to announce that the winner of the Common Market Law Review 2015 Young Academics Prize is Anna Wallerman, University of Gothenburg, for her article entitled: Towards an EU law doctrine on the exercise of discretion in national courts?

Not one but two openings: the minister who defended her plans and many who emphasised the importance of standing together with the arts and social sciences: the opening of academic year 2019-2020 in Leiden was not without event.

A number of different course curricula were presented at a training conference on ‘Islam in the Class’ op 17 November. The course materials were developed by Leiden academics in collaboration with teachers involved in pre-university education.

Bastiaan Rijpkema, legal scholar and philosopher at Leiden University has won the 2017 New Scientist Academic Talent Prize.

Behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying self-concept development in relation to educational decision-making in adolescence

The Europaeum academic community was awarded the Scaliger medal on 23 September in recognition of its promotion of academic values. Andrew Graham, trustee to the Europaeum and founder and honorary advisor to the Scholars Programme, was presented with the medal by President of the Executive Board Annetje…

On Thursday 24 of June, GTGC’s Assistant Professor Valentina Carraro, presented her work on regime complexity during the Conference of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS).

Dimiter Toshkov, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, is a joint winner of the Haldane prize for best article published in 2013 in Public Administration - one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific journals in this academic field.

Applying a three-dimensional framework of research-related activities, Pasteur’s Cube helps to describe and study ‘use inspired’ academics at today’s research-intensive universities.

On 20 June, Freya Baetens delivered the keynote presentation at a workshop on

Leiden University is calling on its students and staff to join in the national day of action – ‘alarm day’ – on Tuesday 6 April for a Normal Academic Standard (Normaal Academisch Peil ). Administrators, staff members and students from 14 universities will be sounding the alarm and asking the government…

Protest is a human right and an important way to hold the authorities to account. But how does the right to protest relate to academic freedom and the right to education?

The opening of the new academic year highlighted students' and lecturers' personal motivators. Incoming students were encouraged to be bold, forge their own paths and grow by trial and error.

After a turbulent Covid year, the well-being of our students and staff has the highest priority. How can we prevent physical and mental health problems? This was the key question at the Opening of the Academic Year in Pieterskerk in Leiden on 6 September.

Examining mediation and moderation.

The theme of the opening of this year’s academic year was peace and justice. With the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, these are turbulent times. During the ceremony those present reflected on what the academic community and universities can mean in times of crisis and conflict.

On 5 February, Dr Kosta and Dr Ceran spoke at the high-level conference entitled ‘Perspectives on academic freedom in Europe and beyond’, organised in Brussels by the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA).

The ‘Wetenschapscongres for vwo’ gets an Anglophone edition: 'Leiden University’s Academic Challenge’.

Without academic freedom, we might not have antibiotics, nor a deep understanding of human behaviour. Literary criticism, climate models, and ecological restoration would be severely limited; just like ethical reflection on artificial intelligence, justice, trauma, parenting, faith and hope. All these…

Paul Behrens (Leiden University) and Matthew Hayek (New York University) have responded to an FAO report on livestock pathways which misrepresented the potential for dietary change to reduce emissions from the food system. The authors have sent a letter to the FAO calling for an urgent retraction on…

Academics increasingly face threats, intimidation and abuse. The WetenschapVeilig platform has been launched to address this. Academics who are being threatened or intimidated can seek help from the platform 24 hours a day. It’s good that we now have this platform. But at the same time, it’s awful that…

On 24 June, Olga Ceran and Vasiliki Kosta, together with Peter Maassen from the University of Oslo, presented the Academic Freedom Monitor 2024 to the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT).

As of September 2023, Leiden University is a new host of the Research Network on Academic Freedom.

On 22–24 October 2025, Leiden University welcomed scholars, policymakers and higher education leaders for the Una Europa Conference on Academic Freedom. Organised by the AFITE project team and supported by Una Europa Seed Funding 2024, the three-day programme examined current pressures on academic freedom…

Dr Olga Ceran has been selected as a 2025/26 Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellow. As one of 11 fellows in this year’s cohort, she will work on a project titled ‘The Linguistic Dimension of Academic Freedom: A Human Rights Analysis of Higher
Education in Europe’.

On 12 October 2023, Kosta delivered a keynote speech on academic freedom at the 30th anniversay conference of the (European) Education Law and Policy Association. The conference was entitled ‘Shaping Education Law for the Future’ and took place at Lisbon University, faculty of law (Universidade de Lisboa,…

Academic studies or an academic career are a big challenge if you are deaf. Particularly in Africa, where many countries don’t even have secondary schools for the deaf. A team of Leiden academics has organised the first summer school for and by deaf academics on the African continent, in Ghana. We spoke…

Nadia Bouras will give the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture on 6 March. She will call for academic freedom for everyone.

During the 55th Leiden-London meeting, held on 25 June 2016 in Leiden, the Editorial Board of the Common Market Law Review awarded the 2015 Common Market Law Review Young Academics Prize to Dr Anna Wallerman, for her article entitled “Towards an EU law doctrine on the exercise of discretion in national…

Vasiliki Kosta gave a presentation during the session ‘Building Academic Freedom’ taking place at Leiden University on 25 November 2025.

On 26 June, Dr Vicky Kosta and Dr Olga Ceran visited the University of Bologna, Italy, to present the Vidi research project ‘The EU fundamental right to