Leiden students are producing ‘College Tour, the podcast!’ with TV presenter Twan Huys. In next to no time, they have to find top journalists and prepare hard-hitting interviews. We take a look behind the scenes.

How do you explain loss, social inequality or mental health to children without losing sight of the gravity of the subject? The new Honours course From Research to Children’s Book, taught by Annelies van Bentum, challenges students to make complex academic themes accessible through the medium of children’s…

Heavy! This is the first word that comes to lecturer Marjo de Graauw’s mind when she looks back on the past year. But with her creativity and experience with educational innovation she was nonetheless able to provide her usual high standard of teaching.

Anneleen van der Meer discusses Russia's alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine in an article for The Conversation.

A celebration was held in the Tabú restaurant: Mark Rutgers, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, was presented with the first copy of LEAP, a journal where Humanities master’s students can prepare for an academic career by publishing articles themselves.

Imparting students with a critical attitude and cross-curricular skills. That is what Rawi Ramautar wants to strive for as the new programme director (OD) of the bachelor of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences. 'A programme director has to create a programme of which students say: I find it challenging and…

The Vrouw Vennepolder near Oud Ade has been transformed into the Polderlab. Scientists and students from Leiden University, together with farmers and citizens, investigate how to manage peatland in a sustainable and profitable manner. A great opportunity for students to experience how scientific knowledge…

If you have a class where you want students to collaborate, you can consider booking an Active Learning Classroom. These flexible educational spaces in Leiden and The Hague are designed to make lectures more interactive.

In this ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important lessons about teaching. This month: Zsuzsika Sjoerds and Sebo Uithol teach students critical thinking with their app 'Family Dinner'. With success: 'The old exams have become too easy.'

The students from the Leiden University Green Office have big ambitions and have outlined their recommendations in a new Green Paper. Like being the most sustainable university in the world by 2030. Students Janey Franssen and Job Kemperman are two of the paper’s authors. How do they want to achieve…

On Friday 10 June a workshop on students’ unique skills was organised in the context of the joint Erasmus+ project ASSET-H. In this workshop, teaching staff learned how to showcase the skills that students can learn in their classes. Trainer Catho Jacobs has five tips on helping students to recognise…

He is always positive towards his students, helps them see the bigger picture of the programme, and tries to remind them that ‘a degree is an enormous opportunity to grow in directions that genuinely interest you.’ Thomas Moerland, assistant professor at LIACS, has been nominated for Lecturer of the…

Back to university to attend lectures with master's students: that's what professionals did at the Leiden Leadership Programme. Conclusion of the experiment? Learning about leadership leaves one wanting more. 'Great that this is possible.'

In the ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important insights about teaching. This month: Ambra Brizi uses AI to encourage students to reflect and think more critically. ‘What are the limitations, and what is the potential of this technology?’

In the last few days, reports have appeared in the media about security in our buildings. These have raised questions and caused concern. This is to inform you as best we can about the security of our students, staff and visitors, in response to this media coverage. We fully understand there is a need…

There should be more social meeting places on our campus. That's one of the outcomes of to the second brainstorming session on the strategic plan. On Tuesday, education and the campus took centre stage during the meeting in Corpus. Professor and programme director Miranda van Eck and student assessor…

Wondering what anthropology students can contribute in daily practice? Both during their bachelor's and master's studies, anthropology students conduct research at the request of social organisations in Leiden via Leren met de Stad. Last week, they presented their experiences and results on the various…

Education is more than just knowledge transfer: students also develop numerous important skills. But which skills are addressed in which courses? And how can we help students train these skills? The Science Skills team is actively engaging with teachers to answer these questions for all courses. Want…

From documentaries, zines and exhibitions to a video installation. Students of the Visual Ethnography master's programme pulled out all the stops to finish their studies in a fantastic way. For one year, the 23 students worked on their own multimedia projects. The screening of the projects took place…

According to Law student Jasmijn van Lochem, you can learn a lot in seven months. For the ‘Onderzoeksassistent’ (Research Assistant) course, part of the Honours College Law, she conducted research on the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in collaboration with Misha Plagis, Assistant Professor…

Computer scientist Matthijs van Leeuwen is one of four science faculty members who obtained the Senior Qualification in Education in 2021. What was that like and what drives him? ‘In my own education I would have liked to see more attention paid to the responsibility that machine learning and data mining…

Debates about the ‘end’ of the Roman era, how, when, and even if it ended, are still very much alive and raging. However, what happened after the (long) late antique period is a lesser-known and lesser-studied subject. The post-Roman past needs, however, as much energetic investigation and discussion.…

As an experiment, student Alicia Cai relied solely on AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude for supervision while writing her thesis. What lessons were learned?

Anne Veens is on a mission. She wants secondary school students to get acquainted with anthropology, and think about the value it can have in the development and implementation of policy. To achieve this, she has developed a teaching package. Last July, she successfully ran the first pilot. 'Most pupils…

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Voormalig demissionair staatssecretaris van Fiscaliteit en Belastingdienst Marnix van Rij gaf op 17 juni in samenwerking met universitair docent Esther Huiskers-Stoop een gastcollege over belastingrecht en duurzaamheid. Deze lezing werd op initiatief van student Darya de Wilt georganiseerd.

Developing a digital guest lecture for high school students. Jan Sleutels was immediately enthusiastic when he got asked to do this. The end result? Together with his colleague Maarten Lamers, he created the guest lecture 'Thinking about Artificial Intelligence'.

Joëlle Koning has been appointed as Head of Student Affairs (OSZ) in the Faculty of Humanities from 1 July.

During the Opening of the Academic Year 2024-2025, we asked guests for their wishes and ideas for Leiden University's anniversary year in 2025.

After seven months of hard work, the participants in the Research Traineeship Programme concluded their research on Friday 2 September with a pitch and a poster presentation.

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Education

Leiden students of cultural anthropology investigated the motivations and experiences of Tiny House residents in the Netherlands. Their findings highlight sustainability, minimalism and community building as core values in this alternative form of living.

The new academic year also marks the start of a new term for our student and staff representatives. Dozens of them – some experienced, others new to the game – are itching to represent the interests of the university’s students and staff. On the Training Day for Student and Staff Representatives, they…

Last Saturday, the Turfmarkt in The Hague, where during the week thousands of commuters make their way to the many ministries in the city centre, was seething with future young students. It was the Bachelor's Open Day at Leiden University, which took place physically both in Leiden and The Hague. A…

The LLM programme is proud to announce that former student Alice Walker, graduate of the ‘20 class, received the Lord Denning Scholarship offered by Lincoln’s Inn for 2021-2022.

Do young people trust the law? That is what HC Law students are trying to find out. Regular guest speaker and social worker Carlito Jones invited the students to the Bezuidenhout-West neighbourhood centre in The Hague to talk to youth workers and neighbourhood police officers: what do they run into…

Three PhD candidates from the Faculty of Humanities have successfully applied for funding from NWO for new PhD candidates. The three upcoming researchers will receive funding from the PhDs in Humanities programme. With the funding, NWO wants to boost the recruitment and advancement of young talent in…

Conference

Why doesn't the Surinamese resistance hero and independence fighter Anton de Kom have a memorial site in his former hometown, The Hague, while there are streets named after colonial leaders? The students of university lecturer Anne Marieke Van der Wal-Rémy are committed to the erection of a statue.

Three students in Elpine de Boer’s class “Practicing Religious Studies” have been working together on a “Leren met de Stad” (“Learning with the City”) project with community centre Morschwijck, located in Leiden. The students were asked by the organization Incluzio to investigate to which extent cultural…

Food security touches upon human rights, international law and sustainable development. These frameworks are not separate worlds but deeply interconnected; something that becomes painfully clear in times of climate crisis, armed conflict and inequality.

How does loneliness work? What sometimes makes friendships complicated for autistic people? And why can the school building be such an unpleasant place for some pupils? Pupils explored this during their pre-university classes. 'I now have a good idea of what studying psychology entails.'

Ever since the first edition of the Science Run, the Leiden Student Running Association Currimus has delivered the winning team or the fastest runner. Now the event is back, the new batch of students must uphold the honour. The board is also forming a team: ‘During the upcoming training session, we…

After the summer, the SPSS statistics programme will be replaced by the new ‘R’ software for first year students. Hemmo Smit and Sjoerd Huisman, both lecturers in Methodology and Statistics, initiated this major change in the curriculum. That did not happen overnight.

The 2024 Thorbecke Lecture was held on Friday 19 April, with the theme of ‘The role of the Court of Justice in protecting the consumer’. Before the lecture, students from Leiden Law School and Ghent University’s Faculty of Law competed in a Moot Court competition based on the same topic.

'Education has always been something I am very interested in,' says the passionate Michiel Hogerheijde. He was already chairman of the astronomy programme committee and has been teaching for many years. Since 1 October, he is also the new Programme Director of the astronomy bachelor. 'I really enjoy…

A true shower of awards for students from the Faculty of Science during the annual KHMW Young Talent Awards ceremony. On Monday, 25 November, no less than nine first-year students received a prize for the best academic results in their first year. In addition, there were graduation prizes for master’s…