Laura van der Plas has been Wellbeing Officer for the Campus Den Haag since the end of 2021. By means of various projects, she makes sure that more attention is given to student wellbeing. How are things going so far? And what are these projects exactly? Laura talked to us to give us an update.

GROW: Conversations on Performance, Development and Well-being (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn). The new GROW interviews offer an opportunity to speak openly with each other about your work, development and well-being.

Not all students spend the holiday season with family or friends. That is why the university is organising the fifth edition of the Winter Weeks this year. The goal remains unchanged: to offer both international and Dutch students who stay in Leiden or The Hague during the Christmas break a warm and…

You might not have gone to medical school but you can still help someone with suicidal thoughts. This is what three staff members who took training from 113 Suicide Prevention Foundation are keen to emphasise. ‘I’ve got a better idea of what warning signs to look for and how to refer students to the…

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Leiden University opened the doors of its new Living Room on Thursday 16 February. The Living Room is a home from home where Dutch and international students can relax and meet others and is a strictly no-study zone.

It has already been a huge success in The Hague, and now the Lipsius building has one, too: an Acts of Kindness pillar. The official opening took place on Tuesday 20 September.

Thirteen teams of inventive staff rose to the challenge of creating brand-new AI applications to lighten their workload during the AI Cocreation Lab. At the closing ceremony in the Academy Building, participants showed their pitch films, and an expert jury announced the winning prototypes.

The announcement was made shortly before the summer break: from 1 September the annual Performance & Development (P&D) interview will have a new format and also a new name. The P&D interview will be changing to GROW (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn): Conversations on Performance,…

EUniWell, the alliance of seven European universities committed to developing teaching and research relating to well-being, is celebrating its first anniversary. Law student Fenna van Haeften has been involved as a student representative right from the start. This October she went to Florence, where…

Staff development is an important key to promoting staff and student well-being at Leiden University. By following training courses and workshop, you can gain knowledge outside your own field of expertise.

For the health of the staff and the whole organisation, it is important to have an open and honest conversation about work pressure – and to do something about it. New websites offer faculties and staff tips and tricks on how to reduce work pressure.

The new Student Support Team visits university buildings where upsetting incidents have happened, offering support to students in need.

Personal development, Transferable skills

Staff and students who want some quiet time out will now have a low-sensory room available to them. Lipsius 1.38 has been specially designed to help people relax.

Lecture, Food for Thought

What are the advantages of a day’s work at home? Were we happy working from home during the pandemic lockdowns? And who is actually responsible for a healthy and happy homeworker? The employee, or the employer?

The number of students suffering from stress and anxiety has decreased slightly compared with 2021. But around half still suffer from mental health problems. This is according to the National Mental Health and Substance Use Monitor.

How do you know if your idea has succeeded? The Queen coming to call a year and a half later might just be a clue. This happened to the Leiden student foundation ‘Door Het Geluid’, which promotes student well-being.

If you want to stay fit, you have to go to the gym regularly, and – hopefully - cleaning our teeth is something we do at least twice a day. So, why shouldn’t we keep on working on a safe and healthy work climate, HR Director Esther van Opstal asks in a conversation on where things stand now with the…

Vanessa de Malmazet has been working as HR policy advisor in FGGA's Faculty Office since March. Promoting employee well-being is high on the Faculty Board's list of priorities for the coming years. In this new role,

PhD defence

It’s time once again to take the National Student Survey (NSE), the annual student satisfaction survey for all students at research universities and universities of applied sciences. Annie de Jong is a Policy Officer for Quality Assurance at Strategy and Academic Affairs and the central contact person…

During her student years, Claudia Robustella struggled with her mental health. Thanks in part to the help of her study coordinator Rosa van Straten, she still managed to obtain her bachelor's degree.

University is often a period of sexual exploration and experimentation, generally to the satisfaction of all involved. But sometimes you want it and the other doesn’t. Or vice versa. Or you can’t really tell. This is what the Safe Space play at Theater Ins Blau was about on 11 October. And: can your…

What does it mean to be the ‘perfect student’? This is the focus of the Perspectify exhibition, which was opened on 16 November by President of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow.

Talking about work balance is important both for your own well-being and for your performance at work. It is an inherent aspect of a modern-day healthy work culture to openly communicate about your needs and challenges. You can talk about this with your supervisor, for example during bilateral consultations,…

GROW: Conversations on Performance, Development and Well-being (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn). GROW offers the opportunity to speak openly with your manager, several times a year, about your work, development and well-being. This involves both looking back and looking ahead.

How do the residents of the Kooi neighbourhood in Leiden find living there? What can we do about loneliness? In this extraordinary academic year, students have been conducting all sorts of research, in Leiden. They presented their initial findings and recommendations at a Learning with the City meeting…

The Andrea Evers Fund provides funding for innovative, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects in the area of health and well-being.

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The Rectors of the eight European EUniWell universities met in July in Leiden. During the meeting they discussed the future of this alliance that focuses on joint research and education in the area of health.

How can the people of Leiden age as well as possible? And what is needed to reduce health disparities? That is the mission of Leiden Healthy Society Center, a new partnership between the Municipality of Leiden, Leiden University and many other partners in the city.

Organisation

Opting more often for mocktails or soft drinks rather than beer or wine, talking to others about their drinking and pointing out the ban on drugs. Leiden University’s new covenant on alcohol and drugs for study associations encourages providing more alcohol-free alternatives.

If you’re unsure where to refer students to for well-being support, this page should help. It provides an overview of the support available at Leiden University.

The GROW toolkit provides you with all kinds of tools that make it easier to participate in the GROW interviews. In addition to useful documents for preparing the start interview and annual interview, it also contains a wide range of training courses and workshops that help you with participating in…

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Connecting with the University and with one another directly contributes to students’ well-being. This page gives an overview of initiatives that promote this.

Leiden University is committed to making your work safe, healthy and enjoyable.

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