Having lectures on sustainability when you're a first-year student of Law, or a course on climate change when you're studying Public Administration may sound odd, but that is just what Associate Professor in Environmental Sciences Thijs Bosker wants to see happening. Together with his colleague Paul…

The incLUsion programme offers refugees who are not yet able to enrol as regular students the opportunity to take part in university education. Simon (IncLUsion secretary) and Sharon (exchange officer) reflect on the graduation and explain how the programme works.

A strategic plan that resonates with employees. That's how Maaike Barkema describes her work as strategic secretary. Her task? Ensuring that the strategic plan is actually put into practice. 'My work is like a puzzle: I bring the right people together and make sure all the pieces fall into place.'

Nationalism is so prevalent in our society that we hardly realise it once didn’t exist. In his new book, senior university lecturer Eric Storm reveals the global history of the phenomenon. ‘Nationalist movements have always influenced each other.’

Workshop

Career development

She stands out for the moderate tone she takes in discussions on Dutch talk shows. Without judgement you can have an open conversation, criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin learned in her student days in Leiden. ‘What I personally think of the alleged act doesn’t matter so much.’

Immunologist Leender Trouw specialises in the complement system, which is part of the immune system. In some diseases drugs help activate or inhibit this system. This is best done ‘in the right place at the right time’ − the title of his inaugural lecture.

Botanisch filosoof Norbert Peeters vertelt over hoe mensen omgaan met planten in het algemeen, en met onkruid in het bijzonder.

‘Safe working is a form of professionalism,’ says Hugo M. Nijhof, head of the Health and Safety department. Starting next year, there will be more focus on this topic. New opening hours will be introduced for the buildings, along with new rules for working outside office hours. Nijhof: ‘Together, we…

For their research many neuropsychologists use the brain scanners at the LUMC. At the start of the pandemic, the rules for visiting the hospital became stricter and a large amount of psychology research looked as though it would fall through. Thanks to good protocols the researchers can now pick up…

A team of Leiden researchers has won the Ammodo Science Award for innovative humanities research on perceptions of cultural heritage.

There are differing opinions about healthcare for transgender young people. Lieke Vrouenraets investigated the ethical dilemmas.

How do young zebra finches learn to sing? A research team led by researcher Katharina Riebel has developed a ‘RoboFinch’ to study just that. She and colleagues in the 'Seeing voices' research consortium have spent the past four years designing the robotic bird. And with success: young zebra finches…

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Woensdag 7 september bezochten de nieuwe eerstejaarsstudenten Rechtsgeleerdheid en Criminologie de Stadsgehoorzaal voor een College Tour met als thema: Strafzaken en de media. Presentatrice Annemarie Brüning, bekend van Hart van Nederland, ging hierover in gesprek met professionals uit het vakgebied…

Educational innovation provides both opportunities and challenges for lecturers. How do you put your innovative ideas into practice or how do you choose the right learning resources for your teaching? From now on, lecturers can go for support and inspiration to the new Leiden Learning & Innovation Centre…

Doing a PhD can be challenging. Moving to a foreign country can be challenging too. PhD candidate Ilya Kokorin, who was born in a small town in Siberia, faced both, while at the same time having to overcome a number of additional challenges and build a future post-PhD.

In this series the Vice-Dean and portfolio holder of education in the board of the Faculty of Archaeology will reflect on the state of education. Posts can range from shedding light on current national shifts in the university landscape to arguments as to why it’s important to be timely with designing…

‘Countering violent extremism – the international deradicalization agenda’ is the name of the book Tahir Abbas published last month. In this interview the associate professor in Terrorism and Political Violence at ISGA tells about the backgrounds and goals of the book.

For the next couple of years, Joris van der Voet, Associate Professor and researcher at the Institute for Public Administration will be heading a research project on top-level bureaucrats and how they go about making choices and prioritizing issues. He has been awarded a Vidi grant by the Dutch Research…

Starting your PhD during two major crisis in your country; it happened to Kamaran Palani, PhD student at the Dual PhD Centre and ISGA who lives in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In spite of the difficulties in his county, Palani (34) stuck to his PhD-research about the fluidity…

After a gap of five years, Leiden has a new Professor of Modern China. Florian Schneider started his position on 1 September.

To truly help citizens, professionals sometimes need to dare to deviate from the rules. That was the main message during the meeting on ‘rebellious professionals’ in healthcare and well-being, held on 15 October in The Hague.

Neighbourhood newspapers, newsletters and Facebook groups: Leiden residents have dozens of ways to keep each other informed about news in their neighbourhood. Students from the pre-master's programme in Journalism and New Media mapped out all these different media and asked themselves: what is the future…

Leiden researchers, led by Sebastian Pomplun developed a new method to screen hundreds of thousands of molecules for drug discovery, using mass spectrometry instead of DNA tags. ‘We wanted to make drug discovery faster and more accessible.’

Harde knip

If you’re planning to organise an event within the university, the information on this page will help you get started.

If you’re planning to organise an event within the university, the information on this page will help you get started.

Una Europa, an alliance of 11 top European universities, provides annual seed funding for new research and teaching projects. Assistant Professor Carmen van den Bergh applied for funding with her Flemish and Italian counterparts. Thanks to this funding and the support of Erasmus+, students can now take…

Starting from the academic year 2024-2025, the entire university is using testing platform Ans for digital assessment. The Faculty of Humanities has made this switch from Remindo to Ans in the second semester (February 2025).

Communication, Working effectively, Transferable skills

The impact of a ceasefire shifts over the course of a conflict, as conflict party leaders learn more about each other’s military and political aspirations and adapt their use of ceasefires accordingly. That’s the key message of the dissertation of Valerie Sticher, PhD-candidate at the Faculty of Governance…

From September 2024, Berber Verhalle is the new assessor of the Faculty of Science. She thus takes over from Nalani Verwoord. Berber completed her bachelor's degree in Biology this year. Next year, she will start the master's in Biology & Business.

Research

Tijdens de Dies Natalis worden elk jaar de Leidse Universitaire Scriptieprijzen uitgereikt. Elke faculteit selecteert hiervoor haar beste scriptie. De beste scriptie van FGGA is geschreven door Leah Beekhuizen met de titel: ‘De lusten of lasten van radicale collega-belangenbehartigers’

Personal development, Transferable skills

On 14 February, we will discuss the role of academics in the public debate and how this relates to academic freedom. All students and staff of the university are cordially invited. Are you curious about this dialogue on issues such as Israel-Palestine, caps and gowns on the A12 and academic titles on…

Three student athletes from Leiden University are representing the Netherlands at the FISU Summer World University Games, a kind of Olympic Games for students.

A diverse (ad hoc) committee will advise Leiden University’s Executive Board on its exhibitions policy in a broad sense, with a special focus on the painting by Rein Dool in the Academy Building.

Marlinde Kapteijn studied Public Administration at Leiden University and decided to apply for an internship after her bachelor. While she enjoyed the internship and was able to learn a lot, she also had to get used to it: 'I had not expected the ministry to be so hierarchical.'

The student assessor: the one student member of the Faculty Board who attends all important meetings and project discussions. The assessor represents students – one of the key target groups – in the faculty’s administrative decisions. The current assessor, Hannah Saberi, will pass over the reins to…

Starting as an MP during the Covid-19 pandemic and after the recent ‘role elsewhere’ debacle during the coalition talks for a new Dutch government, alumna Mariëlle is looking forward to making a real contribution in society.

Americans are electing a new president in November but they also have other choices to make in the polling booth. Alumnus Sanne Rijkhoff works at a Texas university and is trying to help make students more aware of the elections.

Starting as an MP during the Covid-19 pandemic and after the recent ‘role elsewhere’ debacle during the coalition talks for a new Dutch government, alumna Mariëlle is looking forward to making a real contribution in society.

You might take photos and selfies with your phone's camera, or scan a QR code. But there is much more you can do with it. Astronomer Olivier Burggraaff developed a phone attachment that allows you to take measurements of surface water with your smartphone. He will receive his PhD on 13 December.

The Sustainable City Lab The Hague will be a hub that connects organisations in The Hague that work on sustainability with the research and teaching at Leiden University. ‘We’re going to set to work on complex sustainability challenges in our own backyard,’ says project leader Eefje Cuppen.

Leiden Law Cast is a podcast made by Leiden Law School, Leiden University, for everyone who wants to learn more about current legal issues.

The third Tuesday of September is getting closer and that means ‘Prinsjesdag’ (Little Prince Day) and the opening of our own faculty’s academic year. We have created an overview of all the events that have been organised for this ‘The Hague holiday’ in and around the University.

Commercial MRI systems cost millions of euros to purchase and require highly trained technicians to operate. Prof. Andrew Webb works on accessible MRI techniques that offer new opportunities in both developed and developing countries. Webb is a professor at the Radiology Department of the LUMC and,…