Open recruitment procedure

The University applies an open recruitment procedure for all job openings. Faculties may follow a different procedure if they are recruiting PhD candidates, lecturers or researchers for temporary positions. Assistant lecturers (UD) must always be recruited in an open competition. Also professors are usually appointed in an open procedure.

In principle, academic staff who will work as either a lecturer or a researcher are given a temporary contract, with no prospect on permanent employment. The approval of the Executive Board is needed for any exceptions to this rule.

Open recruitment is not compulsory if:

• An agreement is in place concerning a tenure track employment or an employee’s career development.
• The Executive Board has approved an ‘accelerated procedure’ for the appointment of a professor.
• A lecturer is being internally promoted to the position of associate professor (UHD).

Contact your HR advisor

If you wish to recruit staff, always contact your HRM advisor first.

Read about the recruitment process and forms that you will need to fill in if you want to recruit new staff.

If you need to hire temporary staff such as temps, guest lecturers or contractors, certain rules apply. Find out more about your options and what you need to take into account.

For a all the faculties and service units the recruitment and selection process is digitised. With your ULCN account you have access to the e-recruitment system, where you can, for example, view letters and resumes of applicants. That saves time and administration.

To make the vacancy process run as smoothly as possible, be aware of the following deadlines. A vacancy is sent to HR Central, after the following steps;
1) Creation/submission of vacancy by the submitter/vacancy holder.
2) Approval of the vacancy by P-Check (often an HR advisor).

After these two steps, the vacancy ends up at HR Central. The deadline for this is weekly on Wednesday at 3:00 PM. On Thursday, all vacancies submitted before Wednesday 3:00 PM will be sent to the reassignment candidates. The reassignment candidates have until Tuesday 12:00 to express their interest. If there are no interested reassignment candidates, the vacancy will be posted on the website of Leiden University at 12:00 on Tuesday. If you have any questions, please send an email to vacaturehrm@bb.leidenuniv.nl. 

The University encourages its staff to develop and grow in their work. This enables them to move towards their next position.

• The University has various career guidance options and career paths.
• As an internal candidate, you may have priority for an internal vacancy.

The Service Centre International Staff (SCIS) helps international staff with immigration and finding their feet in the Netherlands. They’ve made a list of a number of important issues to bear in mind when recruiting international candidates.

The HRM directorate of Leiden University is responsible for placing job advertisements on job boards. This process is partly automated and partly takes place on request. Please visit the webpage 'Job advertisements on job boards' for more information.