During the opening of the Faculty year on 5 September 2023, Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour Law, and Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, were presented with the JSVO Teaching Awards 22-23.

Leiden Biology student Thijmen Breeschoten received the annual award for being the best BSc-student in 2013 from the “Stichting Professor Dr. K. Bakker-fonds”.

Every year, the Netherlands and Belgium Red Cross organize the Frits Kalshoven IHL Competition, which brings together students from both Dutch and Belgian universities.

History and Religious Studies in Leiden rank # 17 and #32 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject. With this, History in Leiden ranks as the best in The Netherlands and Religious Studies ranks as second best.

Project LAWKI (Life As We Know It) by PhDArts candidate Roosje Klap (ARK) won a Gouden Kalf Award 2022 for the Best Digital Cultural Production.

Thijmen Nuninga was presented the publication award 2019 by the Dutch Lawyers’ Association (NJV) for the best scholarly article.

The faculty of Humanities scores well in the anual QS World Universities Ranking By Subject list. This year we have placed sixth in the category Classics and Ancient History.

Many of our staff and students have won an award, received a grant, obtained an academic fellowship for their quality or have been socially engaged due to their specific expertise. See below for an overview per year.

The third edition of the bi-annual Children's Rights Moot Court has come to a spectacular end in the first week of April.

In a survey held last year by the publication Elsevier, Leiden's Computer Science programme was voted by students as the best university programme of its kind in the Netherlands. And the Rotterdam Economics programme was voted the best in its field. Leiden University now offers a combined study based…

Inspiration from outside and best practices from inside the University. These were the most important ingredients of the symposium on inclusivity organised by the Diversity Office at Leiden University on 22 November.

325 students received their Bachelor’s Diploma of International Studies on 30 August 2019. The students received their diplomas in the historic Pieterskerk in Leiden, in front of a large audience of family and friends. With more than 1100 people present, including 325 graduates, this was the largest…

Environmental scientist Alexander van Oudenhoven has been chosen as Discoverer of the year of the Faculty of Science. Vice Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl announced this during the faculty’s New Year’s Reception on 10 January. Biologist Changsheng Wu won the prize for best dissertation of 2016. Computer…

How can we safeguard children’s rights in conflict zones? The winners of the 2025 Children’s Rights Moot Court Competition, team 19 from O.P. Jindal Global University in India, show unique potential to bring about positive change in this area.

Leiden’s International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) was delighted to co-organise the 15th edition of the Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition alongside this year’s host, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. The event brought together around…

The Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science congratulates alumnus Pepijn van Heiningen and the with the Technische Hochschule Köln shared PhD-student Samineh Bagheri. At the SSCI 2016 conference on computational intelligence in Athens last week, both of them won an award for the high quality of…

Lots of employees celebrated special successes in 2023. Here’s a list of all those scholarships, awards and honours.

Three teams of students from the European Law Master (LLM) and the Advanced LLM in European and International Business Law (EIBL) participated in this year’s edition of the European Law Moot Court (ELMC). All teams worked intensively between September and November to submit written pleadings. Two of…

The team from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia) came out on top at the international online Moot Court organised by Leiden University and law firm Baker McKenzie.

In Spring 2023, Leiden University’s Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA) launched a new Honours Class ‘Model European Union Simulation: Policies, Negotiations and Transatlantic Experiential Learning’.

Op 30 september 2021 gaat professor Marc Boone (Universiteit Gent) op emeritaat. Op woensdag 8 september vindt er een huldiging plaats en wordt een bundeling van zijn beste stukken, verzameld door zijn leerlingen, voorgesteld.

Dr. Yannick van den Brink’s PhD thesis, titled ‘Pre-trial detention in the Dutch juvenile justice system’, has been awarded the FJR Prize 2018.

Leiden University has come 20th in the annual SustainaBul ranking. The SustainaBul is a prize awarded to the most sustainable higher education institution in the Netherlands. This position, a drop compared to last year, highlights which will require particular attention in the University’s new sustainability…

Dr. Mei Wang, chair of ‘Leiden University - European Center for Chinese Medicine and natural compounds’ has been awarded the ‘Qihuang prize’. The prize is awarded by the Chinese Medicine Society in recognition of her significant contribution to Chinese medicine outside China and to further stimulate…

On 15 May the Space Law Moot Court Competition was held in the council chamber of Leiden Town Hall, organised by the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL).

Which brilliant scientist will be our Discoverer of the Year 2019? Will it be a physicist, biologist, drug discoverer or an astronomer? Or an environmental scientist, a mathematician, chemist or computer scientist? As of now, you can cast your vote.

Health psychologist Kaya Peerdeman has won the article award of the Postgraduate School For Research and Education in Experimental Psychopathology (EPP) for the best academic paper in 2015-2016. Published in European Journal of Pain on 19 April 2017.

The Leiden University Fund and dsm-firmenich are proud to open the call for the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Awards 2025. These annual prizes honour innovative research at the Faculty of Science that contributes to a more sustainable world and has a clear societal impact.

Leiden Biology student Amy Montanje received the annual award for being the best BSc-student in 2018 from the “Stichting Professor Dr. K. Bakker-fonds”.

During this award ceremony for alumni op Saturday, 10 February 2018, Vincent Bakker was awarded second prize in Leiden University’s 2018 Thesis Award. These prizes are made possible by the Minerva Reünisten Fund Year 1957/1961/1965, incorporated into the Leiden University Fund (LUF). His thesis supervisors…

The Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR) and the Beheerstichting Theologische Fondsen hand out two biennial thesis prizes, one for the best bachelor thesis and one for the best master thesis. Each of the prizes comes with a cash prize of €500. The prize money comes from the Fund…

Umberto Selva, a Leiden graduate of the Research MA program of Linguistics, has received for his thesis the international award for best MA thesis in the field of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics of the year 2015.

Tuesday May 24th, the LACDR Annual Spring Symposium was held.

On Tuesday 11 January 2022, the new year at the faculty was ushered in with an online event. Dean Joanne van der Leun toasted the new year and of course the annual Meijers prizes and thesis awarded were presented.

On Tuesday 7 September 2021, the new Faculty year was opened with the Leiden Law Op 1 Talkshow. Various guests shared their thoughts and expectations for the new academic year. Lotte Kremers and Bastiaan Rijpkema presented the show.

The Leiden Law Blog has been completely renewed. It is now more interactive and blogs can be more easily shared.

Political scientist Cynthia van Vonno’s (Leiden University) 2016 dissertation has been shortlisted for the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Jean Blondel PhD Prize. Her study of party group unity in parliamentary voting was chosen from an exceptionally high number of nominations.

The Dutch universities are shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and empathise with all those affected by this act of aggression. Leiden University also calls for solidarity with and support for all those affected by the war.

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.

During a working visit to a company that cleans up space debris, the British Prince Charles suggested that a climate agreement specifically for space might be a good idea. Experts, including Leiden Law School’s Tanja Masson-Zwaan, say the idea is wishful thinking.

More and more, software incorporates components of Machine Learning. Joost Visser, professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), is invited as keynote speaker at the seventh Dutch national symposium on software engineering (SEN) to talk about this topic.

On Thursday 16 September 2021, the Opening Ceremony of the LL.M. European Law took place in person at Leiden Law School.

Laurens Hessels was appointed Professor by Special Appointment, lecturing in the Social Value of Science at Leiden University, effective 1 September 2021. His research will focus how best science and industry can work together. Alongside his new position he will continue his work at the Rathenau Institute…

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.

The British Academy appointed Eveline Crone as a Corresponding Fellow to recognise her contribution to the SHAPE themes - the social sciences, humanities and the arts. The British Academy is the national academy for social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. Besides Crone, 83 other Fellows…

From March 28 to 31 twelve student teams from different countries visited Leiden to participate in the second edition of the Children’s Rights Moot Court. They were invited to plead an interesting and challenging immigration law case.

The Ben Pauw thesis prize for the best Master’s thesis in the area of Public Affairs was won by student Esther Mangelsdorf of the Institute of Public Administration.

ACPA alumna Dr. Itandehui Jansen is currently working on a new experimental film. The project researches sustainable filmmaking approaches, while exploring Indigenous Futurisms through film practice. The project is a continuation of Jansen’s research for the AHRC scoping project Sustainable Materials…

At the Institute’s Council meeting of last December the Institute’s biannual prize for teaching was awarded.

Elsemieke Daalder has won the prestigious ‘Premio della Corte costituzionale italiana’, part of the ‘Premio Boulvert’ awards, for her dissertation ‘De rechtspraakverzamelingen van Julius Paulus’, for which she was awarded her doctorate cum laude on 23 October 2018 in Leiden.