Four students founded the Leiden Student Working Group on Homosexuality on the day of the Dies Natalis in 1968. This was to be the start of the LBGT+ movement in Leiden, which celebrated its 50-year anniversary this year. What has been achieved and what is the status of emancipation today?

‘My lectures have to be as enjoyable as possible for the students, even when they're about the drier parts of maths.' Robert-Jan Kooman is one of the nominees for the LUS Teaching Prize.

In line with tradition, at the opening of the academic year the LUS Teaching Prize will be presented to the University’s best teacher. Get to know the nominees. This week: Thijs Porck.

Until now, systematic discussions of gender, race and law have received little attention from Dutch law faculties, especially at the undergraduate teaching level. At the same time, public calls for discussion of these issues increases rapidly.

Many students cycle past the companies of the Bio Science Park every day, but what actually happens behind those doors? And is there a future there for students after their graduation? The Bio Science Park Excursion answers these questions.

Making Mars suitable for human habitation or giving first-year lectures as a student. For the past three years, 150 bachelor’s students have followed a challenging Honours track alongside their regular study programme. On 15 November they were awarded a certificate for their achievements.

Maria Moser, Mischa de Jong, and Ander Damiano Delliturri are the newly appointed student representatives on the Programme Committee (OLC). This committee provides advice to the Executive Board and the Faculty Board on various educational issues, including the development of Course and Examination Regulations…

Just like last academic year, students from Leiden University will get the chance to gain practical experience at KPN. In cooperation with the telecom company, two Impact Challenges are being offered, around the theme 'building bridges'.

De Regenboog primary school in The Hague has a high percentage of children whose first language is not Dutch. In the ‘Children of the City’ project, Education and Child Studies students help primary school children practise their Dutch.

Why do we give students fictional assignments when there is a multitude of real-world problems just waiting to be solved? Leiden University, Leiden University of Applied Sciences and the Municipality of Leiden are joining forces with partners from the public sector in the Learning with the City project,…

A new memorial stone on the facade of a student house in the Hugo de Grootstraat is a reminder of the dozens of Indonesian students who studied in Leiden before and during the Second World War. Some of them were active in the Resistance, which cost a number of them their lives.

Around 150 international scholarship students at Leiden University were invited to Leiden's Town Hall on Wednesday 16 November. They were each presented with a certificate by deputy-Mayor Paul Dirkse to mark their study time in Leiden.

This year’s University elections will be held from 25 to 29 May. You get to choose who will represent you this coming year in the University Council as well as the faculty council of the Science Faculty. This week, the various student parties will introduce themselves. Today: Ondernemende Studenten…

‘When I look back on the honours programme, all I can do is smile. It has transformed me into a student who thinks in terms of opportunities and solutions,’ said Roos ter Elst, student of Education and Child Studies, at the ceremony for the award of Honours certificates to bachelor’s students, on 6…

Minerva, which calls itself the oldest student association of the Netherlands, has the reputation of being an impenetrable bastion. A lustrum exhibition shows the turbulent history and points to a diversity of contacts: from close bonds with Leiden ‘coffee ladies’ to the visit of Sir Winston Churchi…

On June 16, 2025, the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University hosted a panel debate about the ongoing mass student-led protests in Serbia. The protests have shaken the increasingly illiberal regime in Serbia to its core and have grown into the largest student protests in Europe since 196…

What is it like to work in the consulting industry? Twenty-five students from the bachelor programme Informatics & Economics visited the consulting firm BearingPoint, where they innovated the business model of a telecom company.

An event where students came together to discuss the impact of AI on healthcare. Jurren de Groot and Yuxuan Zhu, master's students in Artificial Intelligence, took up the debate. They participated in SimuVaction, an event that brings students worldwide together in Atlanta to simulate an initiative of…

The second instalment of the Humanities Lab - the three-year honours programme of the Humanities – has reached its conclusion. On 12 May, 11 groups of honours student presented their work in the Arsenaal building.

The Clingendael Institute welcomes first-year MIRD students of the 2025-2027 cohort in an exclusive welcome event. Students explore internships, panel discussions, and electives on global politics, diplomacy, and climate advocacy, gaining both academic insights and practical experience.

Discomfort obstructs scientific discussions about sex, argue Eva and Deva from the LOEF foundation. In their Bachelor Honours Class, students approach sex holistically. The results are positive: ‘I’ve become much more open about sex.’

Cooperation is the solution to international problems, demonstrated the final seminar of the Master Honours Class ‘Smart Regional Integration’ – even when it is sometimes easier said than done. “You can see the students struggle with that.”

A month’s break from your studies, ten days of intensive rehearsals and then a concert tour: the Netherlands Student Orchestra is based on a simple formula. Leiden student Daphne Biron tells us about the orchestra and the concert in Leiden on 20 February.

LUC students research the Geul river’s restoration, combining sediment studies, biodiversity assessments, and policy insights for global environmental challenges

On Monday, 4 July 2022, the graduation of the two-year Advanced MSc International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD) programme was commemorated in the iconic Academy Building in Leiden. Students and guests were welcomed by the Program Director, Professor Madeleine Hosli.

The International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) has always been proud of its network, and most notably its alumni. These unprecedented Corona times mean that the students have not had the same opportunities as in past years to meet and engage in personal relationships with that alumni-base,…

The students of iGEM Leiden 2021 have scored well in the eponymous biology competition: they won a Gold Medal and the Best Safety & Security Award. The student team received the awards for their project DOPL LOCK, in which the team tries to make genetic modification safer.

How small steps can lead to big change: that was the theme of the Leiden Education Festival. Students and lecturers came to Scheltema on 9 May to share their experiences of educational innovation.

Last week almost 80 LUC students together with the student association Fortuna took part in the annual UCSRN tournament.

Nearly six hundred new first-year students visited their new faculty on 15 Augustus during the EL CID introduction week. They were welcomed at the Faculty of Science with a transmitter hunt, photo shoots, warm words and lots of liquid nitrogen.

The masterstudents who participated in the International Leiden Leadership Programme (ILLP), received their honours certificate at the festive closing seminar on 11 June in the Old Observatory (Sterrewacht). Congratulations to our international students!

The elections for the Leiden University Student Council and Faculty Councils are coming up, starting on the 17th of May!

Students who have a chronic lack of sleep have lower grades and find it harder to concentrate. Around a third of students do not feel well rested enough to be able to study properly.

Presenting a well-thought-out idea to Schiphol experts, a former ambassador or a security expert. For the third-year Security Studies bachelor students, this was a unique experience and a great opportunity last week. 'Who knows, maybe they can work for us in the future!'

What do you do when you’re suddenly given access to a whole lot of data but don’t know how to organise and analyse it? Maritime historians in the Faculty of Humanities joined forces with vocational college (MBO) students to build a database. ‘We’re so compatible with each other.’

On Wednesday 27 February, a group of around 30 Leiden Law students visited the EU’s Agency for the coordination of cooperation between police authorities, the European Police Office (Europol) in the world’s legal capital: The Hague.

Today we received this tip from two of our students. It's about how to stay motivated while working from home. We decided to share it with you.

On the second day of the EL CID week, hundreds of new students set foot in ‘their’ law faculty for the first time. Today, they will be introduced to the history and ways of the University. Exciting and fun at the same time. ‘Things are getting real!’

On Tuesday, January 30th, the first symposium of the Data Science Research Programme took place at the Sylvius Building.

On Thursday 6 March, students from the elective course Immigration Law attending a hearing at the Aliens Division of the Court of Rotterdam.

The municipality of The Hague wants to build 3000 additional student residences by 2026 because of the shortage of rooms. The plan is an addition on to the already existing ambition of an upgrade of 1900 student residences before 2020.

A record number of students are due to part in the EL CID introduction week starting 15 August. For five days, first-year students from Leiden University and the Hogeschool Leiden will get to know one another, the city, their study programme and student life in Leiden.

Students from the Coornhert Lyceum from Haarlem visited the Babylab Leiden together with their teacher Roos Bannenberg. The 5-VWO students follow modules of 10 weeks for science orientation and they had difficulty imagining what research with babies looks like. The Babylab Leiden gave a solution.

During the opening of the academic year, true to tradition the LUC Teaching Prize will be awarded to the University's best lecturer. Get to know the nominees. This week: Florian Schneider.

How long does it take our master’s students to find a job after they have graduated? How far ahead should you start sending out applications? Where do most Public Administration students end up after graduation? How do most students go about finding work? That was the start of the kick-off meeting Career…

A previously unknown document about Rembrandt’s student years in Leiden has been found in the archive of Leiden University. The document, which is being kept at the University Library, proves that Rembrandt studied at Leiden University for longer than has always been assumed.

After two years in the Faculty Board, Student Assessor Zoë van Litsenburg makes room for a successor per September 1, 2022. Let’s meet the new Student Assessor Imen el Idrissi. ‘I want to focus on the communication between the Faculty and the students.’

Brain scans, heart attacks and credit scores: many science applications revolve around data. But how do you mine applicable insights from a mountain of data? In a Bachelor Honours Class, students discover how data science can contribute to their discipline.

An astonishing twelve students from Leiden University have received a Young Talent Award from the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities in Haarlem, a record. During the festive ceremony on 25 November, five master students received a Young Talent Graduation Award for their thesis and seven…

A shadow cabinet has just been formed. This one consists of students from all the Dutch universities. They will be keeping politicians on their toes in the coming year, and want to show that progress cannot be made without academic research and teaching. Master’s student Zeineb Romdhane is Minister…