It’s Saturday and electric minibuses ride back and forth bringing prospective students to Leiden University’s various faculties. They want to see for themselves whether that interesting-looking programme will suit them.

The Surinamese-Dutch language, Parbo Beer and, of course, football. The ‘Dear Aunt Olga’ (‘Lieve tante Olga’) exhibition focuses on the shared Surinamese-Dutch culture. Full of cheer and with life experience to spare, ‘icon’ Aunt Olga (95) leads visitors through a shared history and does not shy away…

Every year around 8 February, Leiden University, the oldest university in the Netherlands, is celebrating its birthday. Why does the King still receive a telegram on the day of the Dies Natalis? 4 questions on the origins of Leiden University and its traditions for celebrating its foundation day.

The freedom to be who you are – woman, man, homosexual, heterosexual, transgender, religious, atheist, and so on – is perhaps the Netherlands’ greatest attribute. The principle of equality and the right not to be discriminated against are in the very first article of our constitution. Yet there is a…

Lecture, China Seminar

Generative AI presents journalists with new options for image use but also raises ethical questions.

The annual commemoration of the nation’s war dead on Dam Square and at Waalsdorpervlakte, the Dutch apologies for historical slavery and the Cleveringa Lecture itself: our relationship with history is often ritualistic, Cleveringa Professor Frank van Vree will say in his inaugural lecture on 27 Nove…

Chinese athletes must perform this Olympics. Anything less than a gold is being seen as athletes being unpatriotic by furious nationalists online. Florian Schneider, director of the Leiden Asia Centre, explains the situation on BBC News.

External PhD Candidate Liselore Tissen was interviewed by Leiden Global about her work, in which she uses 3D printing. Recently she made a copy of a decorative human skill this way.

Lecture, Herta Mohr Lecture

In the Digital Humanities Lab, students and staff can make use of various technical facilities. PhD student Caeso tells us more about his experiences with the printer in the Maker Space.

Writers are not just storytellers: with their novels, tales and critiques they broaden the social imagination, reflect on societal developments and sometimes put new themes on the map. This can easily lead to a conflict because writers and literati often think very differently about issues such as…

On 11 December 2025, students and staff members from many fields of study had the opportunity to take part in a day-long workshop on the role of the senses in ancient religions.

This masterclass examines the idea of disegno in relation to the early modern decorative arts by investigating the collection of Italian design drawings in the Rijksmuseum. Meaning both design and drawing, disegno was a fundamental concept in the development of artistic theory in early modern Europe…

Giving lectures, marking exams, essays or theses, supervising students and PhDs, doing research and, as if that wasn’t enough, also trying to raise the necessary funding. There is a limited number of funds for academic research and a large number of applications. Many of our researchers therefore experience…

Lecture, LAC Asia Academy

Lecture, LAC Asia Academy

Lecture, Book presentation and Q&A

Lecture

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

Lecture, Seventh Annual Austrian Studies Lecture

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.

Leiden University is celebrating its 450th anniversary in 2025 with a feast for the eyes, ears and spirit. The anniversary year opens with an extra special Dies Natalis on 7 February. Highlights includes an alumni festival, three exhibitions and a canal concert.

Are you curious about how the human skeleton works? Discover this and more on 3 October in Leiden and on 4 October in The Hague.

Lecture

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also had dramatic consequences for Ukrainian students at Leiden University. Besides their intense concern about the fate of family and friends, they also face major financial problems. This also applies to Russian students who can no longer access their bank accounts.…

From memorials to the armed forces to memory stones for individual victims. It was only later that the Holocaust took a central role in Western remembrance culture, Cleveringa Professor Frank van Vree notes. ‘Nationalists and human rights activists both invoke the experience of the Holocaust.’

Lecture, Peace Histories Seminar Series

Organisation, Social

Assistant professor Andrew Shield was interviewd by Norway's largest printed newspaper, Aftenposten about sex and dating apps.