Eighteen of the 150 newly elected Dutch MPs studied at Leiden University or did their PhD research there. Who are they and what did they study?

Young people are more likely to find long texts unappealing to read, particularly with all the digital distractions. To improve young people’s reading skills, Elise Swart and Hannah De Mulder are starting an innovative study to make reading fun again.

Do you know what to do if a rubbish bin catches fire, a student takes ill or a colleague falls off their bike? Our emergency responders do. They are ready to evacuate buildings, fight fires and offer first aid. Why not join the team?

It will be on the agenda of many a team meeting these coming weeks: how can we act on the results of the Personnel Monitor? We asked two managers how they have gone about this, what the results of their meetings have been and whether they have any tips for their colleagues.

The editors of the Journal of Sonic Studies are proud to announce that its 26th issue is online.

Everyone has heard arguments like this before as a child: ‘Whether you like it or not, you have to go to school!’ It seems as though you are presented with two options, but there is only one real outcome. Charlotte van der Voort of the MA Dutch Studies won the Leiden University Thesis Prize on her research…

On 1 September 2023, 280 students received their Bachelor Diploma of International Studies. The students were awarded their diplomas in the historic Pieterskerk in Leiden: the UNESCO world heritage site, where the university was originally founded in 1575. A large audience of about 700 people consisting…

On Sunday, November 9 2025, Prof. dr. Sarah Cramsey presented a film at the “Eastern Neighbors” Film Festival in The Hague.

Leiden University has become a partner of the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

Playgrounds often fail to accommodate children with autism, according to researchers Carolien Rieffe and colleagues. They have published an essay offering practical advice on how to make all children feel safe and welcome for Autism Week (Dutch) and World Autism Autism Awareness/ Acceptance Day on 2…

The Rutte IV cabinet will be sworn in soon. A fifth of the prospective ministers and secretaries of state studied in Leiden. Who are they and what did they study?

The new cabinet has finally taken office. Six of its members studied in Leiden, once again making the University a key supplier to the cabinet. Who are these alumni?

It took a while, but the new cabinet has now finally been appointed. Four members of Schoof I studied in Leiden. Who are they?

The first results of the National Student Survey (Nationale Studenten Enquête: NSE) reveal that students at Leiden University are satisfied with their study programme.

A discount on textbooks is always welcome. But for these students joining a study association has meant much more than that alone.

Over the centuries painters and photographers have depicted students at study in Leiden. An exhibition at the Hortus botanicus reveals the similarities and differences in 450 years of student life.

In the book 'Slave in a Palanquin: Colonial Servitude and Resistance in Sri Lanka' Nira Wickramasinghe, professor of Modern South Asian Studies, uncovers the traces of slavery in the history and memory of the Indian Ocean world. She was interviewed about the book in the New Books in South East Asian…

A grant from the JEDI Fund allowed university lecturer Jessie Morgan-Owens to design a lecture series on indigenous studies. ‘We filled a gap in the knowledge.’

The challenge: take three hundred students from vastly varying disciplines and teach them the basics of academic thinking in twelve lessons. Impossible? Professor Ben Arps and his team of tutors succeeded. It resulted in a large amount of positive student evaluations.

On this page you will find information about the university buildings, a workspace at the faculty and other facilities such as a LU-card and access to the university libraries as well as on who to inform in case of illness.

If you are pregnant, you are entitled to a minimum of 16 weeks of maternity leave. You may take this leave at least four and no more than six weeks before your due date. If you stop working four weeks before your due date, you will have 12 weeks of maternity leave after you have given birth. If you…

When moving to the Netherlands, it is important to know whether you are considered resident tax payer or non-resident. Both residents and non-residents are taxed on their taxable income. A number of criteria help determine your status as resident or non-resident.

If you work at Leiden University, you automatically accrue pension with the Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds (ABP). You can supplement your pension with ABP. In addition to a retirement pension, ABP also offers surviving dependents insurance and a work disability pension. From 1 January 2027, the…

Leiden University offers one full Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS) to an African candidate interested in the two-year Research Master African Studies programme (ResMA AS); thus non-EEA/non-EFTA* applicants. LExS is a prestigious scholarship and includes a fee waiver up until the statutory…

Associate professor Rens Tacoma has won the 2021 Research Prize for Historical Sciences. The prize is awarded annually by the Italy Studies Working Group for the best scholarly publication in the field of Italy Studies in Dutch or Flemish academia.

“Europe must look […] southward, where the global majority resides. The BRICS countries alone represent almost 50% of the world economy and a quarter of the world trade, it is where the youngest populations lives, with an enormous amount of creative energy, something that is often lacking in the northern…

Festival

Why do some people with adverse childhood experiences develop mental health conditions whereas others do not? A Leiden research project is looking for volunteers aged between 18 and 24 to help us understand more about human resilience.

It was while wearing clogs at a Dutch theme park in Japan that Cindy Heijdra really got to know Japan. Over 20 years later, she is studying again: to be a primary school teacher.

For thousands of years, the prehistoric communities of the Low Countries followed their own path, compared with the rest of Europe. An international research team has now published these findings in Nature.