It poured down when Alexander Gallo received his diploma from West Point Military Academy. A bad sign, people said back then. It was June 2001, three months before 9/11. The now 46-year-old American fought in Iraq, did research in Afghanistan and stands in Leiden today, defending his dissertation on…

As a student residence permit holder, you must make sufficient study progress each year.

Find out about the procedures for extending your stay as a student residence permit holder.

Master

Master

Master

Do you have a question concerning the Master Honours Challenges (MHC)? You can find the answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions below.

Education, Research

To arrange before departure

Lecture, Language and the Human Past

This webpage offers you the most frequently asked questions and answers provided by staff and students themselves.

When writing a thesis or paper you must make good use of the insights you have gained during your lectures and studies so far. You should also refer to relevant literature and carry out your own research on the topic.

Study abroad: where and when?

Do you want to request a change to the academic requirements set by your bachelor's or master's programme? Perhaps you want to be exempted from a particular course, because you think you have already acquired the knowledge elsewhere. Or do you want academic credits earned at another institution to be…

Studying with a disability may require additional time and effort. Find out what support is available at Leiden University and consider what might be helpful in your particular situation.

When writing a thesis or paper you must make good use of the insights you have gained during your lectures and studies so far. You should also refer to relevant literature and carry out your own research on the topic.

Approval and application

You're about to graduate. That means there’s a lot to be arranged. The university expects you to take certain steps, as does your faculty and/or institute. Your faculty has various regulations and procedures in place that you need to follow carefully when arranging your graduation.

From 16 to 23 October 2025, the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (FGGA) will host the second edition of Cyber Week. Following last year’s success, we will once again shine a daily spotlight on our teaching and research in the field of cybersecurity through LinkedIn and Instagram. Today’s societal…

Do you want to request a change to the academic requirements set by your bachelor's or master's programme? Perhaps you want to be exempted from a particular course, because you think you have already acquired the knowledge elsewhere. Or do you want academic credits earned at another institution to be…

All students at Leiden University should have a university ID card, known as a LU-Card.

Do you have a question concerning the Leiden Leadership Programme? You can find the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions below.

The academic year officially commences on 1 September and ends on 31 August. On national holidays and compulsory closure dates, the university is closed and no lectures take place.

Did you know that research and education in the field of digital innovation are key pillars of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs? Over the next seven days, we are organising Cyberweek on our social media channels to showcase what we have to offer.

We start the second day of the FLO event with the skills workshops. We have 2 rounds of skills workshops about several skills.

Science thrives on freedom, safety, and stability. But what if these prerequisites are lacking? What if colleagues beyond our borders are threatened, persecuted or forced to flee?

Learn how your organisation board can request funding for projects and activities.

A minor allows you to develop your knowledge beyond the boundaries of your study programme, or to specialise further in your own field of study. You can follow a minor in Leiden and also in Delft or Rotterdam.

Leiden ecotoxicologist Martina Vijver helped shake a European policy proposal in a single weekend. Not with a new experiment, but with years of research on pesticides – and an urgent letter that reached Brussels.

Lecture, CHiLL series

Your student registration will expire automatically at the end of the academic year. However, if you end your study programme earlier, you must cancel your student registration.

A lot is going on in the world right now, and our university regularly faces big issues and dilemmas too. Then it can be tricky to switch off. For me, exercise is a way to unwind. We want our staff to be able to relax too and are therefore offering various events and workshops that should help.

Technology is spreading its tendrils into the classroom. But who is in control?

Marc Broekema from the Department of Business Studies has received a grant from the Netherlands Institute of Registered Valuators (NiRV) to conduct research into how the value of a business is assessed in legal proceedings.

Eva Lammers is currently studying for a master's degree in labour law at Leiden University and expects to graduate in autumn 2023. Lammers did her internship at law firm JPR in Deventer and was thrown in at the deep end from the start. 'Assignments aren’t arranged for you, you've got to arrange them…

Fanny Wonu Veys was appointed Professor of Art and Material Culture of Oceania on 1 August. Time for an introduction.

Philosophy alumna Naomi Rebekka Boekwijt returns to Leiden University on 20 June to present her latest novel Stemmen (Voices) in Plexus. ‘I wanted to show that things could be done differently in psychiatric care.’

When we hear the word ‘bird house’, do we process it as a whole or does our brain see it as ‘bird’ and ‘house’? PhD student Jiaqi Wang explored this for speakers of Mandarin Chinese.

Eight early-career researchers from around the world have been awarded a 51 Pegasi b Fellowship – a prestigious opportunity for astronomers. Julia Santos, a PhD candidate at Leiden Observatory, is one of them. We asked her four questions about this remarkable fellowship.

How to implement good leadership? This is the central question posed during the inspiration seminars of the LLP, in which renowned guest speakers share their insights. A seminar at the beginning of May imparts this message: “Keep listening to one another.”

'How can public leadership contribute sustainably to solving societal problems?'

Safety and security risks ranging from cybercrime to terrorism threats are a growing concern worldwide. Technological developments have made security issues increasingly complex. This is typically a topic for the multidisciplinary Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities (LDE) curriculum.

Confidentiality clauses that contain penalty clauses in television production contracts are common, permissible and useful, but can never be invoked against disclosing misconduct, such as unacceptable behaviour. This is claimed by Dirk Visser, Charlotte Vrendenbarg and Richard Trouborst in their article…

ICT

The new welfare state is said to be close to its citizens and does not dominate, but cooperate. “But this paradigm has a hard time to acknowledge the power relation that shapes the relation between state and citizens,” says Anouk de Koning in the interview 'The Downsides of Equality Talk in the Welfare…

If you’ve written a scientific manuscript, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the app-switching two-step that happens when you copy your data from one program and paste them into another. That time-tested workflow does the job, but it isn’t always the most efficient process. In an article on…

Three directors of PostNL have been arrested in Belgium, suspected of human trafficking among other things. Abuses also exist in the Dutch parcel delivery sector. Why does the Netherlands act less firmly?

When we think of ADHD, we often think of highly creative, hyperactive boys. But does this mean that girls don’t have ADHD at all?

Bart Barendregt explains his new Unesco Chair in Anthropology of Digital Diversity in an interview on the Unesco website.