Leiden University has become a partner of the Global Coalition for Social Justice.

The inauguration of the first members of the Young Academy Leiden (YAL) was held on Wednesday 20 March in the Lorentz Lecture Hall of the Kamerlingh Onnes Building at Leiden Law School. The ceremony was opened by Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker.

The Just Peace Festival's first edition is live! The Opening Event marked the beginning of two weeks filled with activities to reflect on what peace and justice mean in today's world.

The Executive Board has adopted a new Code of Conduct on Integrity for staff. This new code encompasses all the existing regulations within Leiden University, including in the field of research, behaviour towards students and purchasing. 'This Code of Conduct is a very clear statement,' commented Rector…

In a few weeks’ time Carel Stolker will be retiring as Rector Magnificus. In a double episode of the Science Shots podcast, we take stock: what were the key lessons, how has the coronavirus crisis been and of course, what will he do to avoid the post-retirement void? Stolker shares his experiences in…

Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Rector Magnificus and member of the Executive Board of Leiden University, will be taking up a new position as Vice-Provost (Education) at Imperial College London on 1 August 2016.

Synthetic fuel is cleaner than natural oil, but its production process needs to be more efficient. Now for the first time, physicists have directly observed the molecules produced in the chemical process. This paves the way for designing more efficient catalysts. Publication on September 19th in Nature…

Every year many Leiden lecturers and students visit an international university for the purposes of research or study. In the coming newsletters a different Leiden scholar will give his or her view from abroad.

Music from a compostable cello, photographs and scents of fungi and a woven tapestry. With her upcoming multimedia project Super Organism, visual artist Suzette Bousema enables people to experience the underground fungal network with all their senses. Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia and…

In 2017, Leiden University secured ties with numerous foreign partners. This is how we bring foreign talent to Leiden, and ensure our students and scientists can gain experience across borders. In this article, we look back on four foreign trips.

At the end of the year we always compile a list of our most interesting, most popular articles from that year. In the crazy year that was 2020 one topic was at the forefront of everyone’s minds: coronavirus. Fortunately, there was also room for other stories.

This study focused on how households' food consumption and waste were adapted to lifestyles during COVID-19.

Peter Webb is one of the four young Leiden Humanities researchers to receive a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Webb will use the funding for his project EPIC PASTS: PRE-ISLAM THROUGH MUSLIM EYES, to reevaluate the ways in which Muslims in early Islam remembered…

On 9 June the deans of Leiden University met for the 500th time with the Rector Magnificus for the Board of Deans. An informal, inspiring and contemplative meeting without a strict ending time, say deans and former deans.

Within the scope of Leiden European City of Science, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) presented the quadrennial Lorentz Medal to Daan Frenkel in the Academy Building yesterday. The ceremony was in collaboration with the Lorentz Center and was attended by Robbert Dijkgraaf, Minister…

The Netherlands Institute in Morocco is moving to a new location in the Moroccan capital, Rabat. Following a complete renovation of the building, the doors of the new NIMAR Rabat will open in September 2016.

The Uzbek Ambassador Mr. Vladimir Norov visited Leiden University on 17 April. Mr. Norov met with the rector magnificus Professor Carel Stolker and attended the exhibition

English student Anna Carey has won the Student and City film competition. Her promotional film for Leiden as a student city was the best of the 12 entries.

Leiden University has a new platform. On 19 September Vice-Rector Hester Bijl officially launched the LGBT+ Network.

A high-ranking delegation from China visited Leiden on 6 November. The party of some 25 officials from the CPPCC – a Chinese advisory body comparable with the Dutch Senate - visited the Leiden Observatory, the Hortus Botanicus and the Asian Library.

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…

By adding their signature to the collaboration agreement on 31 May, Leiden University, TU Delft, space research institute SRON and NWO confirmed the move of SRON from Utrecht to South Holland. From 2021, the headquarters of the space research institute will be located on the Campus of Leiden Univ…

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

Leiden University celebrated its 442nd foundation day on 8 February 2017.

Leiden University is entering into a strategic partnership with the Leiden student associations and the Local Chamber of Associations (PKvV). The parties are committed to maintaining and strengthening the existing good relations between them.

The climate crisis, the return of TB and the digitisation of cultural heritage. The Netherlands and Indonesia face many of the same challenges. A visit by a delegation from Leiden University to Indonesia at the end of June highlighted the benefits of cooperation.

‘Collaboration is increasingly important,’ Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker said at the 445th Dies Natalis of Leiden University on 7 February. But, as he heard from a number of Leiden researchers, this is contingent upon a firm disciplinary basis. A novelty of this year’s celebration was a joint dies…

Leiden University mourns the victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels. These attacks are an assault on our democratic society. We will continue to defend our European values of freedom and tolerance against all attempts to undermine them.

The 2020-2021 academic year has begun. The new academic year may have been opened in a pared-down ceremony, but a ceremony it was nonetheless, with around 150 guests in the familiar setting of Pieterskerk and around 1,000 people watching the livestream. ‘Universities will always exist, however rapidly…

Staff and student mobility, a cooperative education programme and the possibility of a joint research center in artificial intelligence and data science. A delegation from Chinese partner XJTU paid a fruitful visit to the Faculty of Science in the last week of October.

On 26 October, Leiden University held its first online signing ceremony, signing an agreement with China’s top university Tsinghua to establish a joint PhD programme to co-foster young researchers in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.

This week, Leiden University bade farewell to Henri Lenferink, who is retiring after 20 years as mayor of Leiden.

‘Collaboration is increasingly important,’ Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker said at the 445th Dies Natalis of Leiden University on 7 February. But, as he heard from a number of Leiden researchers, this is contingent upon a firm disciplinary basis. A novelty of this year’s celebration was a joint dies…

On November 27-28 2025, the congress 'Disability and inclusion in the medieval city: a comparative view between Europe and the Islamic World' will be held at the university of Cantabaria, Spain. The deadline for submissions is 13 October, 2025

The integrity and reliability of academic research are of fundamental importance to the University. All parties, both within the University and outside, must be able to have confidence that our research is conducted in a scrupulous, fair, verifiable, impartial and independent manner.

Leiden University has had a campus in The Hague for over 20 years and sees the city as its second hometown.

Bachelor, Master

The oldest university in the Netherlands has produced many well-known scientists. Some of them are known to the wider public; others are perhaps less well known, but their achievements are no less impressive.

The Board of Governors is pleased to announce that Professor Cisca Wijmenga has been appointed by outgoing Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf as its new member.

On 4 May, Leiden University remembered the victims of the Second World War from our university community. Alumni, students and present and former staff of the University came together for this Hour of Remembrance.

We have followed the UK referendum of Thursday, 23 June 2016, with great interest and indeed concern.

For the first time in the 441-year history of Leiden University, students will be the keynote speakers at the opening of the new academic year. Their talks will focus on refugees.

The Hague Global Futures Hub was officially launched at the Wijnhaven building on Campus The Hague on 10 June. This collaboration between Leiden University and the University of Edinburgh represents a significant step forward in addressing global challenges.

As of 1 September, the Netherlands has a national action plan to promote diversity and inclusion in teaching and research. The plan was launched at Leiden University’s Wijnhaven building on its Campus The Hague.

Tineke Schutte made her debut as beadle at Maartje Schoorl's inaugural lecture on 29 April. A unique moment because she's the first female beadle in the history of our university.

On Wednesday 4 September, Queen Máxima opened the renovated tropical greenhouse complex of the Leiden Hortus Botanicus, an event that attracted wide public interest. Thanks to this renovation, the greenhouses are even better equipped for scientific research.

Courses, business premises for startups or help applying for patents: there are many ways the university can help students or researchers with their businesses.

As from April 2023 all students at Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam will start using the eduXchange portal to register for a minor.