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…

Greater transparency in science. Broader career paths. Less work pressure. A dynamic conversation at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW) focused on these goals.

Korrie Korevaart, a former director and lecturer in Dutch language and culture at Leiden University, has been made a member of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Korevaart, who has retired but is still a guest member of staff at the university, has received the honour for her work at the Faculty of Humanities…

Despite a lack of specific legislation on this issue, Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz is allowing the national police force to experiment with facial recognition technology.

A better balance between teaching and research duties, greater recognition of team performances and the elimination of simplistic assessment criteria. The ‘Academia in Motion’ paper published by the Leiden University Recognition and Rewards describes the main problems with recognition and rewards in…

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.

Recent developments in AI mean nobody is anonymous nowadays. The search engine PimEyes can find any photo of anyone that’s ever been placed online. No more Tinder Swindlers… or personal privacy. Everyone’s findable now. But is that even allowed?

A culture change is needed within the University in the area of Recognition and Rewards, and a start can now be made on bringing about that change. The Recognition and Rewards steering group has published a change vision and recommendations people can start to work with. Their advice has been welcomed…

Misleading social media posts are falsely claiming that the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo uses facial recognition at self-service checkouts. Jumbo denies this, although it has launched trials with AI cameras to combat shoplifting without using facial recognition.

Jaap van den Herik was appointed Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau on 8 October on his retirement as professor of Law and Information Technology.

Research

The ambitions of the Dutch Recognition & Rewards programme are widely supported by academics at Leiden University. This is one of the findings from the first Culture Barometer survey, carried out in early 2024.

If universities and research institutions want to tackle unacceptable behaviour in academia, they must shift their focus from dealing with complaints to preventing such behaviour in the first place. This is what the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has concluded. It has therefore…

Education, Research

Lecture

Hiring academics is more than just tallying up publications, says academic director and history professor Jeroen Duindam. He and his colleagues have come up with tips and guidelines for interview committees that align with the new system of recognition and rewards.

PhD ceremonies in the Academy Building will be much easier for family, friends and other non-specialist audience members to follow after the summer. The Doctorate Board is pleased to have decided that as of 1 September, all Leiden PhD candidates will begin their PhD defence with a lay talk. ‘It can…

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,…

Lifelong development centers at Leiden University

The most important elements of GROW are highlighted in 5-minute microlearnings.

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.

Leiden University has received a €50,000 grant from Open Science NL to develop a roadmap for integrating open science into the strategic priorities of various institutes and translating this into human resource (HR) policies.

The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) has appointed four Leiden professors as members. Petra Sijpesteijn, Vanessa Mak, Mariska Kret and Miranda van Eck have recently joined the KHMW.

Leiden University frequently reviews the quality of its research. We do this by means of both internal and external assessments. Read how we monitor and assess the quality of our research.

VVI Research Meetings 2023-2024

An endless stream of publications, data and software accessible to all? Professor of Science Studies Thed van Leeuwen calls for a more human-centred approach and an overhaul of the PhD system.

They are responsible for a wide range of bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes but have more than enough in common to discuss: the programme directors and chairs. They met for the second time on 25 April to share knowledge and experiences and receive an update from Hester Bijl on strategic developments…

In a speech on Keti Koti the Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, apologised on behalf of the royal family for the Netherlands’ historical role in slavery. What is the significance of this?

Alongside the funds that the faculties receive from the Executive Board, they can obtain extra funds from other funding bodies for their teaching and research. These extra sources of income are termed the second and third income streams.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Your telephony coordinator is authorised to approve a name change or process your application for a new connection or telephone number.

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.

Conferentie

Would you like to develop your discussion skills? We provide a variety of training resources for staff members and managers. The topics covered include making a connection, listening, giving feedback and reflection.

In 2014, Leiden University launched the Teachers’ Academy to reward top talents in education and stimulate educational innovation.

It is with great sadness that we have learned that Jan Vranken passed away on Tuesday 17 June. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leiden University in recognition of his work.

2025 was a year to remember at our faculty. We celebrated our 450th anniversary, launched new degree programmes and welcomed many inspiring speakers, yet we also felt the weight of budget constraints. Our year in a nutshell:

Of the women studying at university, 52% have experienced some form of sexual harassment. For male students, the figure is 19%.

Are you looking for a grant to come to Leiden? Here you will find an overview funding opportunities available and steps to take.

The winner of this year’s Iris Medal for Excellent Science Communication is Professor of Science Communication Ionica Smeets.

Teachers at Leiden University are experts in their field and passionate about educating students in their discipline. It is also important that they can work effectively as a member of a team, together with colleagues and students, and that they feel committed to our organisation. We will therefore…

, Maliebaan 30, 2311 CC, Leiden

In order to realize our lifelong development ambitions, we distinguish four action lines, with various actions under them.

Leiden University has adopted its first Strategic Publication Framework for publishing the works of its researchers. With this framework our university takes another major step towards making open science the norm and setting Academia in Motion.