Welcome to Leiden University

It is becoming increasingly common to collect data from children and young people through digital means. The impact of this so-called ‘dataveillance’ on children, who are monitored from birth via smartphones and Fitbits, is great.

There are countless ways to meet new people, at your own study programme and faculty, or elsewhere within the university.

Master

Aline Vidotto has been appointed professor of Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics at the Observatory from 1 February. Vidotto has been with the university for 3.5 years and for her, the appointment is ‘a milestone in her career.’

The Leiden University Student Platform (LUS) is a student-led ‘think-tank’. It consists of eight members: one representative from each of the seven faculties plus one chair.

Literature – and films and social media too – helps us understand ourselves and society. That makes literary studies an eternally modern discipline, especially if you dare to combine it with other disciplines, says Nidesh Lawtoo.

Everything students should know about honours education at Leiden University.

The university council and faculty councils are democratically elected co-participation bodies that represent both students and staff of the university and its faculties. Co-participation also takes place at departmental level through programme committees.

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer delivered the Huizinga lecture on Friday 8 December in a packed Pieterskerk. The writer seized the opportunity of the 52nd edition to point out the importance of creativity, both for artists and scientists.

On Friday 29 August 2025, 370 students received their Bachelor's degree in International Studies. The diplomas were awarded in the historic setting of the Pieterskerk in Leiden. Family members, friends, and staff gathered to celebrate this joyous occasion with the graduates in a packed Pieterskerk.

Professor of Modern China Florian Schneider researches what people do with technology and what technology does with people. Social media, for example. And then mainly in China.

Climate and human rights will again become major issues on the world stage by the end of 2023. The new series of lunch seminars by the interdisciplinary research programme Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) seamlessly tie into these events. All Leiden researchers and students are…

‘Wonder is the beginning of insight. Don’t let that academic curiosity erode.’ This was Jan Anthonie Bruijn’s call to administrators and funding bodies in his valedictory lecture.

A day at the beach, games, a visit to an embassy and a pub crawl. The activities at HOPweek help new students get to know not just The Hague but each other too.

An event where students came together to discuss the impact of AI on healthcare. Jurren de Groot and Yuxuan Zhu, master's students in Artificial Intelligence, took up the debate. They participated in SimuVaction, an event that brings students worldwide together in Atlanta to simulate an initiative of…

Hit the brakes! That’s the advice of the Council for Public Health and Society in a recent report. Eight psychologists share their insights on how to slow down and reconnect.

University lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe comments on The Conversation on Trump’s statement that the war in Iran will end ‘very soon’.

University lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe comments in the Sydney Morning Herald on the possibility the USA have fewer munitions available for other conflict zones, such as Ukraine.

Study information, On Campus Experience

University Campus Spui, Spui 5, 2511 BL, The Hague

In a sailboat, a canoe or stowed away on a ship: during the Second World War, many Leiden students tried to cross the sea to join the Allies in Britain. ‘Soldier of Orange’ is the most famous, but who were the other ‘England voyagers’ or Engelandvaarders as they are known?

University Library, Witte Singel 27, 2311 BG, Leiden

An international team of astronomers, led by Will Rocha of Leiden Observatory, using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered that the key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds are present in early-stage protostars, where planets have not yet formed.

Rich countries are getting richer because of environmentally polluting (construction) investments from the past, largely at the expense of poor countries. This was shown by long-term economic and environmental data. 'The gap between poor and rich countries is widening.' Scientists from the Leiden Institute…

University Campus Spui, Spui 5, 2511 BL, The Hague

Connecting scientific fields, enhancing research and teaching, and providing innovative solutions to complex social issues: that is the idea behind interdisciplinary research. What did the university achieve in 2024? A small sample.

Free cinema tickets or a step tracker paid for by your health insurance. Some insurers offer rewards to promote healthy behaviour. But does the threat of losing something like a deposit work better? And what do patients think? This is what PhD candidate David de Buisonjé researched.

The LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development has interviewed Dr Maaike de Waal about the new publication of which she is one of the editors. 'Living (World) Heritage Cities explores how World Heritage Cities are dealing with the preservation of their living heritage, with all the challenges and…