Leiden University gives its students the opportunity to assemble part of their programme themselves, which enables them to choose their own areas of emphasis. One way in which they can do this is to follow a minor, a coherent package of courses worth 30 credits.

What skills do students need to function as academic professionals and engaged citizens?

How do you fulfill a chairing position during a team meeting? How do you visualise a dataset for a presentation? How do you write the introduction to a scientific article? All Science students can find the answers to these and many more questions in the 100+ skill modules on the digital Science Skills…

Leiden University has selected 13 shared transferable skills that are important for all of its students, regardless of what they are studying. As a faculty, we (co‑)support lecturers and programmes in integrating these skills into the curriculum.

Transferable skills are skills that students develop during their studies and can use later in a variety of work contexts.

Communication, Leadership, Management, Personal development

The Personal Professional Skills Lab (PPSL) is an elective programme for all FSW bachelor students that enter in 2024 and on. The aim of the PPSL is to encourage students to develop personal and professional skills during the bachelor, that will give them greater resilience and direction: both in their…

Personal development, Communication, Leadership

Communication, Research, Transferable skills

As of academic year 2021-2022 Leiden University is offering a minor Business Administration in The Hague. What is this minor and what can you achieve with it?

The Faculty Board has decided to introduce a renewed and future proof minor portfolio starting in the 2027 – 2028 academic year. With this updated package, the Faculty aims to offer an attractive and academically strong selection of minors that aligns with current themes, societal developments, labour…

Minority governments only become an option when attempts to form a government collapse. PhD candidate Corné Smit explored why such governments have become rare in the Netherlands and what advantages they might offer. ‘Broad majority coalitions often fail to make substantial progress on key issues.’

The formation of a new government is in full swing in the Netherlands. Or more accurately, it is in full deadlock. As a result, the possibility of a minority government is being discussed. Would that be a good idea?

Every year, the ‘Kluitersprijs’ is awarded to students who achieve excellent results in the minor Intelligence Studies.

Nineteen students who obtained excellent results in the minor Intelligence Studies received the annual Kluitersprijs.

In the academic year 2022-2023 the Social Resilience and Security interdisciplinary programme will offer a new minor for students who are interested in studying interpersonal violence and who are entering the third year of their Bachelor's degree. The announcement went down well with students: the available…

Future proofing student skills with a new cohort of Digital Humanities & AI students.

Students of the Biology minor course Molecular Design have successfully boosted their skills in collaboration, research and writing with the recently developed E-learning Skills Platform. The biology students and their teachers greatly value the initiative. ‘Sometimes I couldn’t believe what progress…

The universities of Delft, Leiden and Rotterdam are working together to show their students what artificial intelligence (AI) means for their own field. Three AI minors will start in the 2022 – 2023 academic year and will answer questions such as: ‘How best can you use AI in your research discipline?’…

Three new minors at the intersection of security and resilience will launch in September 2026 at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. A distinctive feature is that all three combine academic coursework with a practical placement in the field, within defence, the police, or emergency service…

Education is more than just knowledge transfer: students also develop numerous important skills. But which skills are addressed in which courses? And how can we help students train these skills? The Science Skills team is actively engaging with teachers to answer these questions for all courses. Want…

The ‘Kluitersprijs’ is awarded to students who achieve excellent results in the minor Intelligence Studies every year.

The English taught interdisciplinary minor Violence Studies looks into various facets of interpersonal violence. Is this minor for all Leiden students? These two 'colleagues' are certain of it.

Safety and security risks ranging from cybercrime to terrorism threats are a growing concern worldwide. Technological developments have made security issues increasingly complex. This is typically a topic for the multidisciplinary Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities (LDE) curriculum.

The new minor ‘The (un)just society’ will start in September 2024. We asked Judi Mesman some questions about this new minor.

The interdisciplinary AI & Society minor of Leiden University brings together students and lecturers from a wide range of disciplines. Together they look at the impact of AI on society. Students are enthusiastic about this merging of worlds.

Carlotta Rigotti and Christina Pasvanti Gkioka from eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies, have published an article titled 'Overlapping Offences, Divergent Logics: Reconciling EU Law on Sexual Imagery of Minors' in the New Journal of European Criminal Law.

Why are health problems such as loneliness and obesity so persistent? What causes them to occur more frequently in some neighborhoods than others? And how can we solve them? You will learn about these topics in the new minor 'Co-creating a Healthy Society'.

Tax scandals, like the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, and the Pandora Papers, have made tax avoidance by large multinationals and rich individuals a major topic of public debate. Policymakers are pushed to close tax loopholes and reform the global tax system. But this is no easy task.

The interdisciplinary, English-taught minor ‘Violence Studies’ looks at violence from very diverse scientific perspectives. What are the benefits from this approach? Students and lecturers evaluate: ‘This minor’s a goldmine’.

How do students start asking more questions on a museum visit? Let them free an Egyptian princess from a sarcophagus! In the minor Living Education Lab, students from TU Delft, Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam designed an escaperoom.