The outline agreement proposed by the new cabinet will have serious consequences for higher education and research. If the plans go through, there will be significant cutbacks in our sector. We will keep you up to date with developments on this page.

Leiden PhD candidate Jo-Anne Verschoor discovered that nearly twenty percent of the bacterial strains she studied could degrade plastic, though they needed some encouragement to do so. ‘Bacteria are just like people,’ says Verschoor. Her research was published in the journal Communications Biology,…

On 5 May we celebrate freedom, a basic human right that should not be taken for granted. We asked international students and staff what it means to them.

PhD defence

Whereas the Netherlands Court of Audit used to conduct an investigation once a year, the average civil service organisation now has a few per year to contend with. Is so much going wrong nowadays? Not at all, says Professor by Special Appointment Sjoerd Keulen. ‘It’s one of the methods that makes democracy…

PhD defence

PhD defence

Lecture, Tuesday Talk

Lecture, Tuesday Talks: Science Insights

You and your manager agree on how many hours you will work. The standard working hours for a full-time employment are 38 hours per week.

Organisation

PhD defence

If you are pregnant, as your employer, we will do everything in our power to protect your health and that of your baby. Both during your pregnancy and while you breastfeed.

ICT

From January 2026, Leiden University will have an additional location in The Hague: Spui Campus. As well as teaching, study and sport facilities, it will offer 90 workspaces and meeting rooms for Leiden University staff.

When do we say violence was used in an incident? The answer may seem obvious at first. But interim results from a study by Jolien van Breen show that Dutch people are labelling events in increasingly broad contexts as violent.

When you return to work after the birth of your child, you are entitled to a number of facilities. These are listed below.

Research, Working effectively, Transferable skills

PhD defence

Career development, Leadership

Personal development, Transferable skills

Study support, Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Personal development

Arts and leisure, Personal development, Language, Arts and leisure

If you find a new job or if your contract is coming to an end, there are a number of matters to consider.

Cookware handles, electrical plugs, brake pads. Unlike other plastics, these ‘thermosets’ cannot simply be melted down and reshaped, making them difficult to recycle. Chemist Roxanne Kieltyka and her team are now exploring a way to make these materials recyclable, potentially transforming the way we…

What are you supposed to do if something goes or has gone wrong? Whether it be a break-in, an accident or an unsafe situation of any other kind, or data breach or cyber-attack; please read how to report each type of incident below.

Leiden biologists have found a mutation in flour beetles that allows them to speed up their development. The study has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Your funding needs might change as you advance through your career. Below we detail the opportunities available for every career stage.

Many people at the Faculty of Humanities engage in their work with great passion and enthusiasm. It is important that employees enjoy their work and create a healthy work balance. Work Balance in Action is intended to keep the theme of ‘work balance’ on the agenda. By engaging in dialogue around this…

Data Science & AI student Nataliia Bagan combines a passion for mathematics, language, and artificial intelligence. Her exceptional bachelor’s thesis on improving reasoning in large language models earned her a nomination for the Leiden Science Young Talent Award 2025.

Speculation about alien life, a new nitrogen map, AI as a thesis supervisor, groundbreaking telescopes and multi-million-euro investments to combat antimicrobial resistance – the diversity of these topics shows that our readers are just as broadly interested as our researchers. Discover the most-read…

Personal development, Study support

Professor of Fungal Genetics and Biotechnology Arthur Ram explains how fungi can help us be more sustainable.

Physicist Remko Fermin from Leiden University was awarded a Rubicon grant from NWO. He will use it to study superconducting diodes that could contribute to reducing the CO2 emission of data centres.