Gert Oostindie, Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, has been made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. He was awarded the royal honour by Leiden mayor Henri Lenferink after giving his valedictory lecture, ‘The future of the colonial past’, in the Academy Building of Leiden University…

Greater transparency in science. Broader career paths. Less work pressure. A dynamic conversation at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW) focused on these goals.

Korrie Korevaart, a former director and lecturer in Dutch language and culture at Leiden University, has been made a member of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Korevaart, who has retired but is still a guest member of staff at the university, has received the honour for her work at the Faculty of Humanities…

A better balance between teaching and research duties, greater recognition of team performances and the elimination of simplistic assessment criteria. The ‘Academia in Motion’ paper published by the Leiden University Recognition and Rewards describes the main problems with recognition and rewards in…

John Kroes received a royal honour from Leiden deputy mayor Julius Terpstra on 20 November. He was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau for his exceptional services to the university and his extensive voluntary work for organisations in Leiden and The Hague.

Emeritus professor Willem Otterspeer received a royal honour from mayor Henri Lenferink on Tuesday 20 September. The university historian was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

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…

Thijs Porck, university lecturer of medieval English at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHS).

Research

The ambitions of the Dutch Recognition & Rewards programme are widely supported by academics at Leiden University. This is one of the findings from the first Culture Barometer survey, carried out in early 2024.

Just imagine new AI technology is able to read human emotions flawlessly. How would that affect us as humans? That is the question PhD candidate Alexandra Prégent is exploring.

When Petra Sijpesteijn became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, she was the only Dutch member with an appointment at a Dutch university. Two years later, she is also the only Dutch member of the Austrian Academy and officially joined the British Academy on 7 October.

If universities and research institutions want to tackle unacceptable behaviour in academia, they must shift their focus from dealing with complaints to preventing such behaviour in the first place. This is what the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has concluded. It has therefore…

Education, Research

Whereas most outgoing professors are offered a congress, Nico Kaptein's former students and PhD students took a bigger approach. They treated him not only to a farewell congress, but also to a two-week tour of Indonesia, filled with lectures, and trips.

Police investigations use wiretapped phone recordings as investigative material fairly regularly. But how do they know that the voice on the recording actually belongs to the suspect? PhD student Laura Smorenburg is trying to answer that question.

University lecturer Aya Ezawa has received a Certificate of Commendation from the Japanese Embassy in the Netherlands for her efforts to promote reconciliation between the Netherlands and Japan, in particular by supporting Japanese-Indonesian war children. As a member of the Foundation for War Victims…

Lecture, COGLOSS Seminar

82 years ago Queen Wilhelmina fled to England. Henk te Velde tells about her on the Australian radio show 'Nightlife'.

Hiring academics is more than just tallying up publications, says academic director and history professor Jeroen Duindam. He and his colleagues have come up with tips and guidelines for interview committees that align with the new system of recognition and rewards.

No more ones, twos or threes, but focusing on development opportunities. This summer, the Faculty of Humanities will start a pilot for the new Performance and Development Interviews (PDI). HR adviser Marion Sluijs tells us more about it.

PhD ceremonies in the Academy Building will be much easier for family, friends and other non-specialist audience members to follow after the summer. The Doctorate Board is pleased to have decided that as of 1 September, all Leiden PhD candidates will begin their PhD defence with a lay talk. ‘It can…

Lecture, Ancient History Research Seminar

The announcement was made shortly before the summer break: from 1 September the annual Performance & Development (P&D) interview will have a new format and also a new name. The P&D interview will be changing to GROW (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn): Conversations on Performance,…

Lifelong development centers at Leiden University

The most important elements of GROW are highlighted in 5-minute microlearnings.

How do you know if your idea has succeeded? The Queen coming to call a year and a half later might just be a clue. This happened to the Leiden student foundation ‘Door Het Geluid’, which promotes student well-being.

Students from ‘StudentinzetopSchool’ help schoolchildren and gain valuable teaching experience at the same time. In an online visit on 13 April, Queen Máxima spoke to pupils, students and teaching staff. She also spoke to participants from Leiden. ‘Teaching is wonderful, but it’s complex too.’

Leiden University has received a €50,000 grant from Open Science NL to develop a roadmap for integrating open science into the strategic priorities of various institutes and translating this into human resource (HR) policies.

The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) has appointed four Leiden professors as members. Petra Sijpesteijn, Vanessa Mak, Mariska Kret and Miranda van Eck have recently joined the KHMW.

Master's student Vicente Fischer de Miranda Rodrigues is the winner of the KHMW Brewer Thesis Prize for History. He was awarded the prize for his research on donatism.

Leiden University frequently reviews the quality of its research. We do this by means of both internal and external assessments. Read how we monitor and assess the quality of our research.

An endless stream of publications, data and software accessible to all? Professor of Science Studies Thed van Leeuwen calls for a more human-centred approach and an overhaul of the PhD system.

They are responsible for a wide range of bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes but have more than enough in common to discuss: the programme directors and chairs. They met for the second time on 25 April to share knowledge and experiences and receive an update from Hester Bijl on strategic developments…

In a speech on Keti Koti the Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, apologised on behalf of the royal family for the Netherlands’ historical role in slavery. What is the significance of this?

PhD defence

Workshops

Alongside the funds that the faculties receive from the Executive Board, they can obtain extra funds from other funding bodies for their teaching and research. These extra sources of income are termed the second and third income streams.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Your telephony coordinator is authorised to approve a name change or process your application for a new connection or telephone number.

On Tuesday, December 9 2025, Prof. Koen Ottenheyn delivered the last Austria Centre lunch talk of 2025. Prof. Ottenheyn serves as a professor of architectural history at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and the Academic Curatorium which advises…

You win the Leiden Teaching Prize and suddenly all eyes are on you. Three past recipients reflect on how this student-awarded prize has changed how they work and improved their teaching – and how they chose to spend the money.

Conferentie

In 2014, Leiden University launched the Teachers’ Academy to reward top talents in education and stimulate educational innovation.