Didactics

Transferable skills

Each month, we publish an article showcasing how social science research and education contribute to solving societal challenges. Researchers, lecturers, students, and societal partners work together to make knowledge accessible and to make a difference. Through open science and engaged education, we…

Transferable skills

Research, Communication, Transferable skills

Transferable skills

Which teacher knows best how to inspire their students? Carmen van den Bergh (Humanities), Egbert Koops (Law) and Arjan Louwen (Archaeology) have been nominated for the 2025 Leiden Teaching Prize.

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…

Luckily we’ve been able to meet up on campus again for a few months now after two years of mainly online teaching. Alongside the inconvenience, enforced digitalisation has brought us valuable innovations and smart tools. The question is: what’s going well and what could we do differently? I’d love to…

You can apply various means to increase your societal impact: through interaction with professionals, the commercial sector or general audiences. The University can support you in this process in a number of ways.

Els de Busser (Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs), Ayo Adedokun (LUC The Hague) and David Fontijn (Faculty of Archaeology) have been nominated for the LUS Teaching Prize 2020-2021.

On 12 January ten driven lecturers obtained their Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO). Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl congratulated them in the Academy Building. We asked three of them how the SKO programme had benefitted them, what they think ‘good teaching’ is and what makes them so passionate about…

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…

A group of nine activists from Students for Palestine occupied part of the Academy Building on Wednesday 26 November. Outside, a group of around 30 demonstrators chanted slogans and called on the Executive Board to sever ties with Israeli universities.

Almost 81 years after his famous protest speech against the German occupation, Leiden professor Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa will be remembered in his Groningen birthplace of Appingedam. A statue of him will be unveiled there on 12 November amid various other activities.

New research sheds light on how university lecturers make critical deliberate decisions about their teaching in an era of rapid change, revealing the complex ways educators shape and navigate their professional practices amid mounting pressures.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) in partnership with Elsevier hosted a series of online seminars on the challenges involved in achieving reproducibility in research. The seminars aimed to identify best practices that can help to overcome central challenges around reproducibility, and to convey several…

Education never stops because society is always changing. It is up to students and lecturers to align learning and teaching with current demands. During the Leiden Teachers’ Academy Education Festival, participants united in their search for ways to achieve that.

You win the Leiden Teaching Prize and suddenly all eyes are on you. Three past recipients reflect on how this student-awarded prize has changed how they work and improved their teaching – and how they chose to spend the money.

An important question being asked, both in the academic world and in society, concerns the impact of our research and education. By providing a well-supported answer, we not only create a strong position for our research, we also increase our chances of success in applying for research grants and retaining…

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.

Research, Working effectively, Transferable skills

If you have an idea for a new degree programme, be aware that the registration procedure is complex and time-consuming. Your faculty, the Executive Board, the Efficiency Committee for Higher Education (CDHO) and the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) must all approve.

All staff are entitled to a workplace free from unacceptable behaviour such as bullying, sexual harassment, intimidation, discrimination and violence at work. The same applies to integrity issues such as theft or a conflict of interest. If you experience or witness such behaviour or suspect a breach…

The Comenius innovation programme for higher education and universities of applied science gives teachers the resources to implement their vision for education. Every year, the programme creates the conditions for a wide range of teaching innovations to flourish. The government’s aim with this programme…

Study support

An important question being asked, both in the academic world and in society, concerns the impact of our research and education. By providing a well-supported answer, we not only create a strong position for our research, we also increase our chances of success in applying for research grants and retaining…

The university elections are coming up. If you’d like to represent the interests of students and staff in the coming year, register as a candidate on 14 or 15 April. Here are five good reasons why.

Work pressure is still high across the entire organisation. Leiden University is not unique in this respect, as all Dutch universities are facing high levels of work pressure. In an effort to reduce work pressure, we have launched a toolkit including practical measures at central, faculty, and individual…

On July 3rd the Leiden University Dialogue in Education Network (LUDIEN) has officially been launched. The network welcomes all who are interested in dialogue as a tool for connection and improved student wellbeing in higher education. The dialogue method is moreover useful to talk about sensitive issues…

Gert Oostindie, Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History, has been made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. He was awarded the royal honour by Leiden mayor Henri Lenferink after giving his valedictory lecture, ‘The future of the colonial past’, in the Academy Building of Leiden University…

Lawyer and human rights activist Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You is the new Cleveringa professor.

Frank van Vree, Emeritus Professor of War, Conflict and Memory Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UVA), is the new Cleveringa Professor at Leiden University this year.

South African poet Antjie Krog will be the writer in residence at Leiden University in autumn 2021. Krog is famous for her poetry collections and books, which are often inspired by the history of South Africa. In her role as writer in residence, she will give the annual Albert Verwey Lecture and a series…

Amid rising polarisation and discrimination, lawyer and human rights activist Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You wants to show in her Cleveringa Lecture on 26 November how dangerous exclusion is.

A gold carpet welcomed students, staff and curious locals into Spui Campus on Monday 2 February. The V&D department store has been transformed into a unique open knowledge centre.

It often takes longer for women with heart problems to get the right diagnosis. In her Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture, Professor Hester den Ruijter will talk about how hormones influence the heart and the importance of medical research that focuses specifically on women.

Hanne Cuyckens, Michiel Dam, Anja van der Voort, Daan Weggemans and Paul Gobée have joined the Leiden University Teachers’ Academy. Lecturers from the academy can exchange experiences, develop themselves and share their knowledge and expertise with the rest of the university, for example through the…

‘We’re going to see each other again on campus. We’re so pleased, but we do have to say safe.’ Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl is looking ahead to the new academic year, which begins on 6 September. No more 1.5m distancing, but we do have to take responsibility for other people’s safety.

Paul Gobée (LUMC), Kirsty Rolfe (Humanities) and Frank Takes (Science) have been nominated for the Leiden Teaching Prize 2023.

Organisation

The opening of the new academic year highlighted students' and lecturers' personal motivators. Incoming students were encouraged to be bold, forge their own paths and grow by trial and error.

ChatGPT, the text-generating chatbot, has recently become available for anyone to use. Is this artificial intelligence (AI) tool a threat to our teaching?

Studenten blijven tevreden over hun opleiding en docenten, maar studentenwelzijn en de aansluiting op de arbeidsmarkt blijven belangrijke aandachtspunten.