The Honours Academy offers extra opportunities for students and teachers at Leiden University.

Are you a curious and enthusiastic student, and do you want to do more besides your regular studies? If so, Honours education might be something for you!

Are you a curious and enthusiastic student, and do you want to do more besides your regular studies? If so, Honours education might be something for you!

Are you a curious and enthusiastic student, and do you want to do more besides your regular studies? If so, Honours education might be something for you!

At the Honours Academy, students (vwo, bachelor, master) engage in extra education.

Stay informed on all honours programmes at Leiden University through our quarterly newsletter. The Honours Academy Newsletter is available in both English and Dutch.

The Honours Academy of Leiden University organises outside-the-box education in which students and teachers from all faculties further develop themselves. In doing so, we help them, the university, and society move forward.

When, after four years or more, you have finished your manuscript, it is time to request the Graduation Formalities to start the defence procedure.

When after four years or more, you have finished your dissertation, it is time to prepare for the defence procedure.

On this page you can follow PhD defences by Leiden University researchers via live stream.

Embedding ethical legal and societal aspects for responsible military AI.

When you have finished your dissertation, it is time to prepare for the defence procedure.

When you have finished your dissertation, it is time to prepare for the defence procedure.

What are the host immune defence mechanisms that control intracellular infections and how are these subverted by pathogens?

During the honours programme’s start of the year event of September the 15th, Pierre van Eijl and Albert Pilot were invited to talk about their research on talent development in honours programmes and the honours laboratory for 21st century skills. The honours programme with a new name is ‘Tackling…

Nine Honours Class students pitched their plans on 3 March to make the city of Leiden safer, more transparent and more democratic. In this version of 'Dragons Den' headed by Professor Job Cohen the students were tested on their plans and their mettle.

From a Tuscany escape room to scientific illustrations of flowers, and from Chinese movie subtitles to innovative education methods for children, every subject imaginable was covered at the first ever Honours College Conference. ‘You get the chance to break away from the standard study path.’

Despite substantial progress in understanding tuberculosis (TB), the eradication of the TB epidemic is still far from reach.

The annual New Year Lecture for Honours College Law took place on Friday 17 January. This year’s speaker was Barbara Zwirs, author and former assistant professor in criminology at Leiden Law School. Her lecture got 2025 off to an inspiring start.

Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) is the international Honours College of Leiden University and offers an innovative Liberal Arts & Sciences undergraduate programme to highly talented and motivated students from all over the world.

Students from the ‘Public confidence in the criminal justice system’ Bachelor’s Honours Class completed this course with their presentations at the final session on Tuesday 25 May. What is unique about this honours class is the collaboration with The Hague University of Applied Sciences and the Court…

Eva Michaels & Monika Sus examines European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) as the EU’s response to the fragmentation of the Liberal International Order.

Just published:

In this article, Dimitrova, Gürkan and Koops presents a general framework for capturing and systematicallyanalysing critical junctures and degrees of change in EU policies.

How to innovate education? In this series, the Honours Academy highlights examples from their educational testing ground that aim to inspire. Today: the liberating effect of pass/fail and ‘unessays’ at Honours College Law.

Eva Michaels & Monika Sus examine strategic autonomy in EU foreign policy, tracing evolution from the 1998 Saint-Malo Declaration to its current focus.

Pushing the limits and trying things out. The academic year of the Honours Academy started on 10 October and all the speakers encouraged students to jump in at the deep end.

The subjects of the texts vary from Demosthenes to the delivery of camels in early Islamic Egypt, and their provenances stretch from the Eastern to the Western Desert, and from the Egyptian Nile valley to Qasr Ibrim in northern Nubia.

This liber amicorum is a tribute to Prof. dr. ir. Hans H. de Iongh, associate professsor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) of Leiden University and guest professor at the University of Antwerp, on the occasion of his retirement on 27 October 2016.

This book celebrates Maarten Mous, professor of African Linguistics at Leiden University.

The transformation of the myriad of medieval kingdoms, principalities, local lordships, city-‘states’ and peasant ‘republics’ into ‘modern’ states, claiming some measure of sovereignty, remains one of the core themes of European history, because it gets down to the very root of the (idea on the) Europe…

Who had a say in making decisions about the natural world, when, how and to what end? How were rights to natural resources established? How did communities handle environmental crises? And how did dealing with the environment have an impact on the power relations in communities?

This collection of papers was compiled in celebration of the remarkable academic career of Professor Wil Roebroeks, who has established himself as one of Europe’s leading figures in Palaeolithic archaeology over the past three decades and founded the Human origins research group at Leiden University…

The third Honours Academy Star was awarded to Jan Sleutels during the opening ceremony of the academic year of the Honours Academy on Tuesday 6 October. Sleutels is a lecturer in the Honours College Humanities Lab of the Faculty of Humanities and coordinator of the Pre-University College.

Dr. Bart Custers, associate professor and director of research at eLaw, the center for law and digital technologies, has been appointed as member of the Honours Council of the Honours Academy.

The Honours Academy has recently started working with the new visual technology Virtual Reality (VR). 'It is important to look beyond your own borders and to keep on experimenting. It may not work out, but at least you tried.'

Claire Weeda, Robert Stein, and Louis Sicking have published a collection of essays in honour of Em. Prof. dr. Peter Hoppenbrouwers - also the former Scientific Director of the Research School of Medieval Studies. The contributions can be consulted freely online.

Social impact and circular economy. Two topics focusing on the future and bringing forward many concrete problems. Two Master Honours Classes, in which students tackle societal challenges, will start this fall.

In March, the Honours Academy will be launching two new Master Honours Classes. In these classes, students with a curious mind will have the opportunity to do research into the relationship between humans and nature or to work on an innovation for the healthcare sector. ‘This will allow students from…

The Honours College Law (HC Law) is soon going to look very different. What does the HC Law currently do, and what’s going to change? Why should you apply for it? To answer these questions, we spoke to Maartje van der Woude, Designated Professor at the HC Law. She’s designing the new programme in collaboration…

The four thousand war victims buried at the Netherlands Field of Honour at Loenen include a number of Leiden students who were in the Resistance. The War Graves Foundation is looking for volunteers to take part in a special event to honour the deceased.

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…

Have you ever wondered what law has accomplished in different countries and jurisdictions? If it even has accomplished anything at all, or that it are all promises of a better world? And have you ever thought about the role of law in the war on terror, in climate change, in emancipation and protection…

What defence strategy should the Dutch government adopt for the next four years? Our experts advise investing in social resilience, strengthening ‘soft power’ and integrating defence awareness into education.

Emeritus professor Victor Halberstadt has been honoured with the Cross of Honour of the Order of the House of Orange.