If your work allows it, you can work partly from home and partly from a university location. How exactly this combination looks for you depends on your own work and that of your team.

A new university-wide survey is now open to all involved in conducting, teaching, advising on, or supporting research related activities at Leiden University, aiming to better understand the current state of Open Science awareness and practice. Initiated by Archaeology’s then PhD candidate, now guest…

Are you moving to the Netherlands with your partner and looking to build your own career here? Whether your partner will be working at Leiden University or elsewhere, this page is for anyone relocating to the Netherlands and exploring job opportunities. Here you’ll find useful tips, resources, and links…

For the academic year 2025-2026, nine (teams of) teachers will receive a Grassroots or Grass shoots grant. Here you can read about their projects.

Brightspace is Leiden University's digital learning environment. With Brightspace you can share course materials, grades and updates with your students. You can create and evaluate assignments and quizzes, perform plagiarism checks, provide personalised feedback and peer-feedback, and start discussi…

With the number of externally funded research projects at the university on the rise and funding bodies setting ever-stricter requirements, it can be challenging to keep track of budgets, deadlines and reporting. The new Vidatum tool makes managing external projects easier for researchers and research…

The proportion of professors at Leiden University who are female has risen slightly to 32.0%. These are the results of the Women Professors Monitor 2024 released by the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH). This puts Leiden University above the national average of 28.7%.

Excessive regulatory burden causes economic harm and can undermine trust in government. Policymakers wishing to ease this should be more mindful of people’s differing responses to rules, says PhD candidate Ritsart Plantenga in his dissertation.

Anne-Laura van Harmelen has received a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This talent programme will enable Van Harmelen to research the social and neurobiological mechanisms of resilience in young people with childhood trauma.

Jelle van Buuren, university lecturer at ISGA, discusses the role that social media played in the storming of the Capitol last Wednesday

Students and researches from all faculties at Leiden University are warmly invited to a lunch meeting on Monday 14 October, discussing the rise of AI and the challenges this poses for various governance structures. The event is hosted by Leiden University’s interdisciplinary programmes GTGC and SAIL…

It’ll be a sight to behold: 54 begowned beadles striding through the streets of Leiden. The beadles from 14 universities will gather in Leiden on 25 and 26 August for the 30th National Beadle Day.

As every academic year, the leadership team of the Young Academy Leiden (YAL) is changing. Sarah Giest, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, will be the new Vice-Chair. Annemarie Samuels, Asssociate Professor at Social Sciences, will be the new Chair. The Young Academy Leiden…

Around seven per cent of children have difficulty learning their mother tongue because they have some form of developmental language disorder (DLD). World DLD Day on 15 October called attention to this disorder. Development psychologist Neeltje van den Bedem explains why this is important.

John Kroes received a royal honour from Leiden deputy mayor Julius Terpstra on 20 November. He was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau for his exceptional services to the university and his extensive voluntary work for organisations in Leiden and The Hague.

The Executive Board of Leiden University has asked the University Council to advise on its proposed decision to reactivate the person counters/sensors in due course. The Council will now look at this carefully before the Board makes a final decision. The advice of the University’s participation body…

Facility

Research

How can we continue to work on an open university culture where everyone’s contribution is recognised and rewarded? Over 120 university staff spoke about breaking academic barriers at the first Academia in Motion Festival in PLNT.

NATO not only safeguards our security and stability, but also defends Enlightenment principles, promoting prosperity, health and freedom. This is what eminent psychologist and thinker Steven Pinker argued to a packed Great Auditorium.

In November 2023, the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) underwent its first full external research evaluation for the period from 2016 to 2021 with outstanding results. In its final assessment report, the independent external evaluation committee underlines that ‘the committee is impressed…

The University Council gives the Executive Board (un)solicited advice and helps decide on important topics. For example, permanent contracts for lecturers and the workload and well-being of our students and staff. It’s an important organ, but many staff have no idea what it does. ‘I think it’s great…

The university is launching a campaign to focus extra attention on our smoke-free university locations. The University is using aptly named cigarette barrels to try to show clearly just how many cigarette filters are being saved from the environment. How harmful are these cigarette filters to the e…

‘A Muslim and a Jew in the house of God.’ This is how historian Nadia Bouras introduced her recent conversation with colleague Sara Polak in Leiden’s Hooglandse Kerk. They discussed the rising tensions since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. ‘Dare to ask each other questions.’

For 25 years now, each faculty has had an assessor, a student representing the interests of all the faculty’s students. Yet few students are aware of this.

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…

War and peace studies. A topic that is more relevant than ever because of the war in Ukraine. In September, the MSc Crisis and Security Management (CSM) will start a new track: War and Peace Studies. CSM’s Programme Director, Ernst Dijxhoorn, discusses the new track, how it was created and what students…

How satisfied are you with your work? And how can we improve? On Tuesday 6 May, our partner Welliba will invite you to take our 2025 Employee Experience Survey. We want your opinions on your workload, a respectful culture and more.

It is one of the most talked-about subjects right now: how do we eradicate sexual harassment and violence? Alumnus Femke Eisma is the spokesperson for Mariëtte Hamer, the government commissioner tasked with tackling this persistent social problem. Eisma studied the Dutch language at Leiden. How is her…

Jeroen van Gessel’s lecturers didn’t always have time for extensive feedback on his written assignments. So, together with tech-savvy friend Menno Hahury, he founded Eduface, a startup to develop an AI teaching assistant. ‘The first users now work three times faster.'

Leiden University’s digital study environment is being expanded to include the Leiden student portal: a single place where students can find all the information they need to organise their studies.

Last week Annemarie Montulet and several of our colleagues attended an online fair in China to talk to Chinese PhD candidates. ‘I had some very good discussions with potential candidates. It gives me a lot of energy to do my utmost to find a suitable research position for them in Leiden.’ We have a…

The EU’s programme for research and innovation Horizon Europe is funding the ISGA project ‘NET-ROL: Networks and the Rule of Law: Uncovering Socio-Economic Outcomes’. The funding amounts to 3 million euros, with 760,000 euros going to ISGA. Researchers Antoaneta Dimitrova and Jaroslaw Kantorowicz are…

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations (BZK) is establishing two new professor chairs for the Kingdom.

The Aernout van Lynden Global Citizenship Award award is a recognition given by the LUC community. Each year a student who has demonstrated the qualities of active engagement, responsive and responsible participation in civic and/or community building, within and/or beyond LUC is presented with the…

A Diversity & Inclusion symposium for academic staff was held at the end of last month. The focus of the internal debate was 'Let's speak about Inclusive Curriculum and Teaching'. All aspects of these topics were emphasized, ideas were developed, and tips & tricks, sensitivities, and best practices…

Various thought-provoking questions have been appearing online and in print adverts. They are part of a national university funds campaign in which the Leiden University Fund (LUF) is also participating. We wanted to find out more, so we called LUF Director, Lilian Visscher.

Research

Vivian van der Linde completed her masters Crisis & Security Management in the summer of 2020 by writing a thesis on Dieselgate. Freshly graduated, she felt she wanted to do more with her research. But how do you go about that, having just finished studying? Together with her thesis supervisor Wouter Jong…

The annual National Student Survey (NSE) was conducted in the first quarter of 2024. A third of all Leiden University students responded. Lecturer appreciation and atmosphere were rated highly, whereas job market preparation and student well-being remain points for development.

Organisation

The Schoof cabinet has presented its budget. As expected, higher education is facing severe cuts. In the coming period, the Executive Board will regularly look at the consequences of what it deems an irresponsible policy.

'Only together we can improve the faculty culture,' say FGGA Dean Koen Caminada and Head of HR Monique Jongman. They emphasise the importance of participation in the FGGA dialogue sessions.

Yesterday marked the start of the National Accessibility Week. How accessible is Leiden University for people with a disability? We asked Lucia Langerak, disabled herself and working at the Honours Academy, about her experiences: ‘Significant improvements are being made.’

The Defence White Paper, titled ‘Strong, smart and together’, is debated in the House of Representatives along with the Defence Budget and raises concerns especially in uncertain times.

On Thursday 19 October, the Crisis and Security Management programme welcomed back six alumni for an alumni panel.

Ten projects have been selected during the fourth call in the Seed Funding Programme launched by EUniWell. Marieke Liem, Professor Social Resilience and Security, has received a grant for the MASTERY project.

Young Leiden researchers Alisa van de Haar and Marleen Kunneman have received a KNAW Early Career Award. The prize, awarded annually for outstanding achievements, consists of 15,000 euros and a unique work of art.

The new Ehrenfest multi-storey car park at the heart of the Leiden Bio Science Park was opened today by the Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board of Leiden University, Martijn Ridderbos. The car park, an initiative of the University, should improve accessibility and quality of life on the campus.

In October 2024, we launched GROW, the conversations (Conversations about Results, Development, and Well-being). It's time to ask for initial impressions within the organisation. I spoke about this with Mirjam van den Brand, Institute Manager of LUC. She is positive about GROW: 'It's transparent,…