After two virtual editions, the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences could finally come together in real life again to celebrate the start of the new year. So it’s no surprise that the central hall of the Pieter de la Court Building was filled with lively chatter during the New Year’s Reception,…

On Tuesday 7 September 2021, the new Faculty year was opened with the Leiden Law Op 1 Talkshow. Various guests shared their thoughts and expectations for the new academic year. Lotte Kremers and Bastiaan Rijpkema presented the show.

In mid-March 2020, the global coronavirus outbreak changed everything in the Netherlands. Staying at home as much as possible and the 1.5 metre rule became the standard. One year on, we reflect on the past year with four Leiden Law School ‘insiders’. What kind of year did they have? And what are their…

On 11 January 2022, the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences opened the new year during a livestreamed reception. Dean Paul Wouters and Executive Director of Studies Kristiaan van der Heijden were the hosts. After several faculty prizes were awarded, our Dean expressed a new year’s resolution…

Buried beneath a Suffolk forest, archaeologists have uncovered the earliest known human-made fire. A fire that was sparked 400,000 years ago. This stunning UK discovery may rewrite our evolutionary story, potentially pushing fire-making back by more than 350,000 years.

In mid-March 2020, the global coronavirus outbreak changed everything in the Netherlands. Staying at home as much as possible and the 1.5 metre rule became the standard. One year on, we reflect on the past year with four Leiden Law School ‘insiders’. What kind of year did they have? And what are their…

Each year a staggering 18 billion chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows either die or are killed without making it onto someone's plate. Environmental scientists Juliane Klaura, Laura Scherer, and Gerard Breeman were the first to calculate this number on a global scale. 'Reducing these numbers…

On Tuesday 12 January 2021, the annual Meijers prizes and thesis prizes were awarded at the online New Year’s event broadcast from the Old Observatory.

The Faculty of Humanities is launching the Programme Standards project with the aim of distributing the teaching effort more transparently and fairly. In June, the Faculty Council approved the Programme Standards project on the condition that it would include enough evaluation moments, a condition that…

They are talented, independent and fit right into your team: LDE trainees. Every year, their knowledge and skills strengthen various university departments. We’re looking for new assignments for the upcoming academic year. So why not submit one, say current assignment provider Monique and trainee Ea…

The new student members of the Programme Committee (OLC) are Pablo Pandocchi, Benjamin Maldonado, Emily Berube-Palsboll and Nico Lesenfants Ramos.

The government, the people and the country were in desperate straits. This about sums up the state of affairs in the Disaster Year of 1672. It was 350 years ago, and to mark the occasion PhD candidate Roosje Peeters collaborated on a series of letters to and from a key political figure Johan de Witt,…

A study programme all about cities and their issues. Three years ago, the bachelor's programme Urban Studies was a newcomer in The Hague. By now, the first theses are being written. André Gerrits, programme director, talks about the programme’s success: 'The intake of first-years has increased from…

Are you working with film, photo, sounds, creative coding, drawings or other unconventional method in the social sciences and humanities? ReCNTR has a new 2-year multimodal seminar. Check it out and apply by November 15th!

In a world beset with war, climate problems and skyrocketing energy prices, it is good to have some 'slack time' now and then. That was Dean Mark Rutgers' message at the Faculty of Humanities' New Year reception.

Samen met andere studenten bracht Fien Lurvink hulpgoederen naar Oekraïne en nam vluchtelingen mee terug.

How do you move 3,000 fragile clay tablets that date back thousands of years? This was the challenge faced by staff from the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO). After years of preparation, the Liagre Böhl collection has been moved on trolleys to its new home.

The bachelor’s programme in Dutch Studies marked its fortieth anniversary on 22 May with a festive gathering in Leiden.

An impressive speech by Dean Jasper Knoester, a lecture by top researcher Mario van der Stelt about brain messengers, and the presentation of the faculty awards. 2025 begins on a hopeful and festive note, with a toast to a year of fruitful collaboration within and beyond the faculty.

At the Faculty of Science, forty per cent of the employees are of a non-Dutch nationality. Amongst PhDs that is even sixty per cent. How are they doing in a time of working at home in a different culture, when travelling is not possible? Clinical pharmacologist Lu Chen is the third in this series to…

Britain's biggest archaeology magazine has announced the nominees Book of the Year award and this time one of our own has been nominated!

Organisation

Finance

Did you watch the Dies Natalis on Tuesday the 8th? There, the new Strategic Plan of Leiden University was presented. The plan, Innovating and Connecting 2022-2027, is a plan by and for us all. It came about thanks to the involvement of many colleagues and students, from our Faculty as well.

On May 4, 2024, from 10.00 to 16.00 hours, a festive day took place in Oss, celebrating the fact that staff and students of the Leiden Faculty of Archeology have been doing fieldwork in and around Oss for 50 years in good collaboration with the municipality of Oss, the local heritage and archaeological…

Workshops, tours, talks, music, an AI photobooth, interviews, a special poem and the launch of the LUF Children’s Fund. Alumni celebrated their alma mater’s 450th birthday in style on Saturday at the massively oversubscribed Dies Natalis Festival.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Thousands of students and researchers from eight partner universities in the Netherlands and Flanders have been able to gain valuable experience in Egypt through the institute. Good reason for a celebrat…

Labour law professors have shaped research and education in Leiden since 1936. From the rise of trade unions to the AI revolution, the field has constantly evolved. Major changes are on the horizon again in 2026. 'Labour law will always be important.'

The Dutch police force has been deliberately storing personal data relating to millions of Dutch people for many years now. In doing so, the institution has been knowingly breaking the law. Bart Schermer, Professor of Law and Digital Technology expressed his concerns on Follow the Money – a platform…

On Tuesday 6 September the faculty academic year 2022-2023 will be opened with a talkshow to be broadcast live from the Kamerlingh Onnes Building: Leiden Law Op1.

Wil Roebroeks was part of an international research project examining turtle shells from Neumark-Nord. The 92 shell fragments were carefully and thoroughly cleaned by Neanderthal hunters about 125,000 years ago. It is likely that they were not hunted for food but for the shells themselves as the site…

The Conversation published an article on the oldest dice authored by Aris Politoupolis, Angus Mol and Walter Crist. In this article they discuss how the oldest dice are d2's, or double sided dice comparable to a coin toss. These double sided dice are 12.000 years old and therefore much older then the…

From chilling on the beach to a speech by the mayor. HOPweek is a speedy way for hundreds of ‘Leiden’ students who are going to be studying in The Hague to get to know each other. Many of them come from abroad. ‘I actually dare to cycle here.’

Last week, Humanities Lab honours students presented their research through creative posters and pitches at the Capstone Conference in PLNT Leiden. It was a special edition, where alumni and teachers reminisced over the programme’s 10-year history.

The European University for Well-Being (EUniWell), an alliance of seven European universities including Leiden University, is celebrating its first anniversary! All employees and students are invited to the online FestiWell event to celebrate this landmark together. Reason enough to call Melissa Koops,…

The Faculty of Science launched the new Academic Year on 21 September with a special We Are Science talk show. Dean Paul Wouters starred in his role as talk show host and received a wide variety of guests.

Pre-University College The Hague is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2024-2025. Three alumni look back on their experience. PRE broadened their academic horizons and taught them a lot about themselves. ‘PRE made me feel more comfortable at university'.

‘Let us not forget the power of genuine engagement,’ dean Sarah de Rijcke stressed at the New Year's Reception on 7 January 2025, which was also attended by Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl and addressed the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Four years of war in Ukraine have transformed the nature of warfare, with drones, digital defence systems and improvised solutions shaping the battlefield. At a recent symposium, Dutch and Ukrainian experts discussed frontline conditions. What lessons do they see for Europe?

Finds uncovered in the east of Germany show that Neanderthals stored and preserved vast amounts of meat and/or temporarily aggregated in larger groups to exploit the spoils

Research

This year, the Netherlands and China reflect on fifty years of diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level. How has the relationship between the countries developed over the past half century? An interview with university lecturer Vincent Chang.

Conference

After an extensive content analysis of the coalition agreement, a sharp fall can be seen in the focus on education & culture, science & technology and defence. This is the conclusion of university public administration professors Gerard Breeman and Arco Timmermans. They compared the content with all…

Julia van Alem had never held a camera before, but she and her classmates were appointed as the City Photographer. ‘This project helped me learn how to create my own work better.’

How do atoms and molecules end up forming planets? That's what astrochemist Julia Santos studied during her PhD. She discovered the dominant process behind the formation of methanol in space – a finding that surprised the entire field.

Corrie Bakels is known as one of the founders of bio-archaeology in the Netherlands. One of her former students, Dr Marco Langbroek, active in astronomy, made a request to the International Astronomic Union to name a recently discovered asteroid after her. Hearing the news, Bakels was astounded. 'My…