Visitors to Leiden's City Hall and the University Library can visit the 444 Years of Leiden University exhibition from 25 January.

In exactly 450 days’ time, on 8 February 2025, it is the university’s 450th anniversary. We are going to celebrate this with our students, staff, alumni and friends. In the run-up to the anniversary, we are compiling our top 450: Who or what is your favourite?

On Friday 5 September, to mark our 450th anniversary we celebrated the opening of the faculty year together with the Leiden Revisited alumni event. Combining both annual events was a huge success, especially as staff brought along their family, partner or friends.

one or three sessions per week

Over the past year, Leiden University’s 450th-anniversary celebrations brought together students, staff, alumni, partners and the residents of Leiden and The Hague. Join us as we look back on the highlights.

Who inspired you to see a subject in a whole new light? The Teacher of the Year Award celebrates those who not only share knowledge but also spark curiosity, connect with students, and bring research to life. Meet the finalists for 2025!

These awards honour researchers who turn scientific insight into real-world impact. From master’s students to postdocs, they highlight exceptional work in life sciences, health sciences, biotech, or environmental health sciences with data science at the core. Meet the 2025 winners.

The Dutch Research School Art History (OSK) and Utrecht University organize the Technical Art History Days. On April 4 and 5, experts present and discuss current research at Utrecht University that brings together material and digital approaches for the study of art and heritage.

How many men and women die per year at the hands of others? What are the motives behind these killings? Are there as many homicides today as years ago? How can we explain the rise and fall of homicides over time? And: What is the influence of (early) childhood and adolescence on the likelihood to commit…

Arts and culture

In 2025, we celebrated our anniversary. Here, we look back on all the anniversary activities that took place.

The opening of the Academic Year 2019-2020 took place on Monday 2 September 2019 in Pieterskerk church.

Each year, the Faculty of Science celebrates exceptional teaching with its annual award. Here you’ll find how the tradition began, how the winner is chosen, and where to explore the lecturers who have earned the title in previous years.

De opening of the Academic Year 2021-2022 took place on Monday 6 September 2021 in Pieterskerk church.

The opening of the Academic Year 2024-2025 took place on Monday 2 September 2024 in the Pieterskerk church.

The theme of the anniversary, ‘Ahead of the times’, served as inspiration for the design of the lustrum logo.

The opening of the Academic Year 2017-2018 took place on Monday 4 September 2017 in Pieterskerk church.

De opening of the Academic Year 2023-2024 took place on Monday 4 September 2023 in Pieterskerk church.

De opening of the Academic Year 2022-2023 took place on Monday 5 September 2022 in Pieterskerk church.

Neuropsychologist Mariska Kret is through to the next round in the 2016 Science Talent contest organised by New Scientist magazine.

The opening of the Academic Year 2018-2019 took place on Monday 3 September 2018 in Pieterskerk church.

Source: Biochem Pharmacol, Volume 95, Issue 4, pp. 290-300 (2015)

This volume contributes to the scholarly debate regarding the reception of Cicero and focuses on one particular moment in Cicero’s life: the period from Caesar's death (March 44 BCE) up to Cicero’s own death (December 43 BCE).

Our Talents and Discoveries was a yearly publication by the Faculty of Science of Leiden University, published since 2003. You can read all the editions online. Note that the original publication was in Dutch; the original title translates as 'What we are proud of'. The last booklet came out in 2022,…

The opening of the Academic Year 2020-2021 took place on Monday 31 August 2020 in Pieterskerk church.

The opening of the Academic Year 2016-2017 took place on Monday 5 September 2016 in Pieterskerk church.

This year the National Student Survey (NSE) overall results place LUC The Hague as the best University College programme in The Netherlands for 2016.

The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI) and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) organize a two-day workshop on Indonesian Family Law on 4 and 5 October.

Of the 87 Vidi research subsidies awarded by NWO, five have been awarded to Leiden researchers. This represents almost 6 per cent of the successful applications.

Since September 2001 Leiden University's Media Technology MSc program has educated modern academics, creative nerds, playful programmers, tinkering thinkers, and conceptual cross-disciplinarians. On May 13th, we celebrate!

Our anniversary won’t be an anniversary without a bit of sport. Sport brings us together: shoulder to shoulder on the start line and cheering each other over the finish. We ran (or walked) in Leiden and The Hague.

The Hague Diplomacy Podcast aims at bringing the themes of the journal's research off the page, and onto the discussion table. Each episode will feature a guest who will share their insights and personal experience within their practice of or research on diplomacy. Available via SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts…

Leiden Law Practices (LLP)

By looking at what is different, researchers often discover the special, the unusual. And that has already brought a wealth of highlights – also in Leiden.

The Leiden Hortus botanicus has received an inheritance of 5 million euros. This is a gift from the estate of Carla van Steijn, who was a loyal visitor to the Hortus during her lifetime. In accordance with her wishes, the gift will be used for new activities and to optimise accessibility for less-able-bodied…

Many important and extraordinary discoveries have been made in Leiden. Roam the city and discover the fascinating stories behind them. All you need is your smartphone!

From 5 – 7 November the The Hague Program for Cyber Norms will take place at Het Spaansche Hof in the Hague. The theme this year is Behaviour in Cyberspace: Novel Horizons.

Interested in Area Studies? Then Leiden is the place to be! Join our Online Area Studies Week from 2-5 June to find out more. From Africa to Brasil and from Korea to Russia, Leiden covers all areas and fields, both in language, literature, history, politics and socio-economics. Join our live Q&As!

From Caspar Reuvens to the royal grave in Oss, and from ancient images in the Hortus to a table from Naturalis. The National Museum of Antiquities is 200 years old, and throughout this whole period there have been close contacts between museum and university. Curator Annemarieke Willemsen explains this…

Research report January 2020. Supported by the lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’, research group ‘Making in Music’, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

Conference

April 10 at 7 pm - April 12 at 8 pm

On 4 and 5 April 2024, the conference "Waterways and Literary Channels of the Premodern World" will take place at Ghent University. The conference is organized within the framework of the Scientific Research Network "Literatures without Borders". Proposals for 20-minute papers, round-table contributions…

Leiden is easy to reach by public transport. The bus station is right in front of Leiden Central Station and there are many routes serving the city and the region. The Faculty of Humanities is a 10-minute walk from the train station. Alternatively you could take bus 1 or 3 from the train station and…

This year, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy celebrates its 15th anniversary! In our infographic below, we summarize 15 years in numbers.

Our motto is Praesidium Libertatis, or ‘bastion of liberty’. How did it come into existence, and in what way is Leiden University staying true to its meaning? Five questions about our motto.

The late 1960s: across Europe, students are demanding the right to more participation within their universities. In 1971 Leiden University was granted an elected University Council. It became quite powerful: the Council even had the right to dismiss the Chairman of the Board.