Leiden and The Hague are real student cities and has everything you’ll need to turn your time as a student into the time of your life. Read more about student life.

The Research School for Medieval Studies aims to create a safe and trusted learning environment for students and staff. If they have concerns, especially if they experience unwanted behavior during a course or event organized by the Research School for Medieval Studies, they can contact the confidential…

This project combines and reconsiders all the available evidence of the Scheurrak SO1, and use new archival databases and modern archaeological techniques to shed new light on the material culture of the Baltic grain trade and the Holland shipbuilding industry at the turn of the sixteenth century.

Reproducing past, present and future: colonial visions and experience in Asia in the residencies

Student life in Leiden and The Hague. We will tell everything about this real student citues to make sure you have the time of your life!

How the systematic destruction of valuables created value in Bronze Age Europe, c. 2300-500 BC

In the field of Western art music, improvisation has become a much discussed topic. In this interdisciplinary study I argue that in this context, improvisation is not to be seen as a quasi-autonomous skill or art form, but as an aspect of music-making in general.

Hieratic Papyrology

How were war heroes and war criminals created, and how do these images relate to the historical context?

‘I would never want to be treated by a computer,’ says Boudewijn Lelieveldt, Head of Radiology at the Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Image Processing and Medical Delta professor in the Bioinformatics group at Delft University of Technology. No matter how intelligent a system, we have to continue…

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden University’s Faculty of Science with University of Tunis El Manar in Tunesia.

Mathematical and computational analysis of the dynamics of polar transport of the plant hormone auxin.

My NVICairo Experience - Marie Costers (MA student, University of Antwerp, NVIC student Spring 2025)

Every month a member of the Institute for History tells about a book that inspired him or her. Afterwards, the pen is passed on to another colleague. This month dr. Meike de Goede tells about the book 'Between Tides' by Valentin Mudimbe. The novel, little known beyond the circles of Africanists and…

The maths level of Dutch primary school children? Nothing to write home about—at least, that’s the common perception. But according to researchers Marian Hickendorff and Emilie Prast from the Institute of Education and Child Studies, that idea is simply not correct.

Nicolaes Tulp (1593-1674) studied medicine in Leiden. He attended lectures in the Academy Building and was taught anatomy in the former Faliede Begijn church, now the ‘Old Library’ (Oude UB) building, for a long time the location of the anatomical theatre. Shortly after his move from Leiden to Amsterdam,…

On Thursday, 11 May 2017, Nobuo Hayashi defended his PhD dissertation entitled “Military Necessity”. A brief summary provided below.

How was the Scholarly Self cultivated in professorial families of the humanities, in German-speaking Europe between 1860 and 1930?

When psychologists repeated a hundred studies in 2015, their results differed in two-thirds of the studies. ‘Research into research is not a luxury but a necessity,’ says Professor of Methodology and Statistics of Psychological Research Mark de Rooij. ‘My aim is to improve psychological research, to think…

The artefacts that still remain from the traditional culture of the indigenous Yukon, Canada, are spread over dozens of museums throughout the world. Yukon Indian Ukjese van Kampen carried out research to bring this culture to light. This is the subject of his dissertation entitled ‘The history of Yukon…

In the specialisation Occupational Health Psychology, part of the Master in Psychology, you will integrate knowledge of several disciplines in psychology, with a clear focus on workers and their work setting.

Beginning teachers often experience difficulties making activating lessons. This study investigates how and if the practical teaching model can offer them a hand in learning to design lessons.

The quantum nature of matter and light has grown into a broad and fruitful research field for theorists and experimentalists alike. It combines foundational research with toward applications, the most well known of which is the quantum computer.

Cognitive decline (amongst other problems with attention, concentration, memory) is a common symptom in patients with a variety of brain disorders and has been related to healthy ageing as well. People suffering from cognitive deficits are often significantly hampered in their day-to-day functioning…

Aesthetic formations and cultural repertoires give meaning to our reality in ways that are never neutral. Focusing on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and its global interlocutors, this project brings together a team of scholars from Leiden University who bring in inter-disciplinary, inter-area…

Memory, Imagination, and Mimetics in Contemporary Composition and Historical Performance

The Old Observatory offers various options for visits from schools. Besides our tours, we also offer special workshops for schools.

The discovery of new medicines is a tedious and lengthy process. On average, over 10,000 molecules need to be studied for one to become a drug and reach the patient. Part of that process are the very costly clinical trials in humans, and candidate drugs often fail due to side effects or lack of efficacy.…

Persistent somatic symptoms are long term symptoms that lack a clear medical explanation. These symptoms have a high prevalence where most people know someone who experiences such symptoms or they experience such symptoms themselves. Symptoms can vary greatly in and between people. While one person…

Having a chronic somatic condition can result in a variety of impairments in patients’ daily lives, including not only physical complaints such as pain, itch, and fatigue, but also problems of negative mood and impairments in social relationships. Next to disease characteristics, individual difference…

Leiden has a long history in the treatment of blood cell cancer. Research to find better therapies never stands still. One of the potential treatments currently being worked on is a ‘living medicine’.

The effects of many treatments are determined, to a significant degree, by factors other than the medicine or treatment itself. For example, placebo effects can be equal to the effect size of for example antidepressants or painkillers. Contributing factors are the trust placed in the doctor, the expectation…

docARTES is a doctoral programme for performers and composers. It offers a unique environment for critical reflection on musical practice.

Impressions by Dr. Lilian Ruhe

Impressions by Wouter Baas and Caroline Schep

Online platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) have become part and parcel of everyday media use. Journalists incorporate posts from politicians into newspaper reports, scientists share their insights in short posts or videos, and the judiciary uses social media to explain their…

Can the conditioning paradigm be used for checkpoint inhibition cancer treatment?

Grassroots heritage initiatives and community engagement

Through this research, we aim to gain a clear understanding of perceptions of safety in Leiden. The results will provide us with information about current perceptions. As Leiden’s City Criminologist Marianne Franken explains: ‘This research really focuses on Leiden’s residents. That’s why want to ask…

Dynamics of material, social and ideological relationships in the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean

Joining forces for a healthier The Hague

A cautious response to a crisis or terrorist act avoids the creation of a culture of fear. This is another way to reduce our vulnerability to terrorism.

The combination of practical knowledge and academic skills makes you valuable to many employers. You will be ready to take on various positions in commercial companies, the government, research institutes, heritage agencies, laboratories, or museums.

The central theme of the NWO-project ‘The Promise of Organization’ is the evolution of political organization during the 19th century. We focus on the enthusiasm, arguments and concrete activities of the organizers as well as the criticism offered by opponents of modern political organization.

There are over 7,000 languages in the world and over half of the world’s population is bilingual. But how do all these people use their language? And how do these languages differ from one another? Under the slogan of ‘Interconnecting linguistic diversity,’ the researchers from the Leiden University…

What is the difference between highly visible and poorly visible monuments on the alignment? And is this difference reflected in the social position of the dead buried underneath these mounds.