When you have finished your dissertation, it is time to prepare for the defence procedure.

You have chosen to do a PhD at Leiden University. The 2021 PhD Regulations, which were established by the Doctoral Board, specify what you must do to earn a PhD. Here you will find out more about the procedures relating to submitting and defending your dissertation and which forms you will require.

You have chosen to do a PhD at Leiden University. The 2021 PhD Regulations, which were established by the Doctoral Board, specify what you must do to earn a PhD. Here you will find out more about the procedures relating to submitting and defending your dissertation and which forms you will require.

The outbreak of coronavirus has radically changed our life and work. We have had to work, teach and conduct research from home. How has coronavirus changed your work? What do you miss most? And what is keeping you going? We asked a few colleagues.

In some cases, PhD candidates are permitted to follow a PhD track that involves conducting research and receiving supervision at two institutions: Leiden University and another university. On this page, you can read what forms of agreement there are.

Welcome to the Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities. On this website you'll find a wide range of information you might need as a PhD candidate. If you have any further questions, please contact the Graduate School Office.

Please find below an overview of the steps in the formal procedure leading to the public defence of a PhD dissertation. If the text below is not entirely consistent with the applicable regulations, the text of the regulations will apply.

All defences will take place in the Large Auditorium.

We can help you to bring the results of your research to the attention of the media. Ideally, you should do this before your article or book is actually published.

PhD defence

How can you ensure that your research hits the headlines? How can you bring your research output, such as PhD research or a publication, to the attention of the public?

Your PhD studies culminate in a ceremony. The thesis defence is the most important part of the ceremony, and your supervisor or co-supervisor also delivers a eulogy about your work. Find out about the PhD ceremony and what is expected of you as a PhD candidate.

You have chosen to do a PhD at Leiden University. The 2023 PhD Regulations, which were established by the Doctoral Board, specify what you must do to be granted a place on a PhD programme.

If you are granted permission to defend your thesis at Leiden University, please take into account the rules concerning the PhD ceremony. Below you find an overview of the practical matters.

The Dean is the most senior person in the faculty responsible for the smooth progress of PhD programmes. They are also the Dean of the Graduate School. In some faculties, the management of the Graduate School is delegated to another professor, who may or may not also be a member of the Faculty Board…

He has had to accept early retirement due to his military profession, or ‘FLO’ (Functioneel Leeftijdsontslag) as it is more commonly referred to within the Dutch Ministry of Defence, but the words ‘retirement’ or ‘winding down’ do not appear to be part of Frans Osinga's vocabulary. His appointment at…

You have chosen to do a PhD at Leiden University. The 2021 PhD Regulations, which were established by the Doctoral Board, specify what you must do to be granted a place on a PhD programme.

The (co)supervisor(s) are responsible for supervising the PhD candidate.

Your dissertation layout must meet certain requirements. Special rules apply if you have written your dissertation with others or if you are publishing a commercial edition.

How do you write a good news article? Here are a number of guidelines to help you.

PhD candidates at Leiden University must be admitted to one of its Graduate Schools. The admission procedure varies between Graduate Schools. See the general information about PhD admission. There are different forms of studying for a PhD. And you may choose to do a double doctorate at Leiden University.…

The West has missed several opportunities to prevent the invasion of Ukraine or, at the very least, to better support the Ukraine, claims Frans Osinga, Professor by special appointment War Studies.

During the guest lecture on 9 February, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Rob de Wijk and Frans Osinga discussed the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan. The crises in eastern Ukraine and the increasing tensions around Taiwan highlight the challenges the West faces in deterring aggression in the new era of key dynamics…

The Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) of Leiden University contributed to the design and teaching of modules of this year’s edition of the Ministry of Defence’s ‘International Military Cooperation Course Africa’.

Theo van den Doel received his PhD in January for his research on veteran support. This showed that for long the government learned little from past missions. He has since presented his dissertation to the Lower House of Representatives, and the Minister for Defence, Kajsa Ollongren, has responded to…

How can The Netherlands, France and Germany cooperate more closely on issues such as European security and defence. Join the kick off of The European Strategic Dialogue Series, an initiative by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and its partners in France and Germany. Joachim Koops tells more…

Apart from the PhD regulations, Leiden University also employs the PhD guidelines that lay down the minimal requirements for the supervision, training and available facilities for PhD candidates.

How are you doing in these strange and unprecedented times? This is the question we are asking our colleagues in this series of articles. This time we asked Erick van Zuylen, the University beadle. 'This year, I haven't been leading the PhD committee into and out of the chamber, wielding my beadle's…

Leiden University is proud of its research and teaching, its staff and its students. This is why we are keen to inform society of what goes on at the University.

As a supervisor, you are responsible for the supervision of your PhD candidate. Read here about your duties as supervisor and the procedures relating to this, as well as which forms you will need.

Abeer Abazeed, PhD-student at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, will defend her thesis on Wednesday april 21st. Four questions about her PhD-research ‘Is it One Nile? Civic engagement and hydropolitics in the Eastern Nile Basin’.

In Poland the commemoration of acts of resistance is being misused to distort the history of the Holocaust. That is what Cleveringa Professor Jan Grabowski said in his inaugural lecture on 26 November. In her lecture, the second Cleveringa Professor, Barbara Engelking, pointed to the often indifferent…

Almost everywhere in the world where the post exists, the beadle is a ‘master of ceremonies’ who only makes his appearance on special occasions. In Leiden the beadle does much more. He is indispensable at dissertation defences and orations. He directs ceremonies and is a master at calming nerves.

On Thursday 15 April, Sabine Mengelberg, associate professor at the Faculty of Military Sciences of the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA), will defend her thesis on changes in European security architecture. Permanent Change? The Paths of Change of the European Security Organizations is the title of…

Dr Antonio Missiroli has been appointed as Associate Senior Policy Fellow for Emerging Security Threats at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA).

Xander, student Public Administration, did an internship at the Marine Corps Training Centre. During his internship, he worked on automating the system of logistics requests. Now he is working as a working student for the training centre.

Starting your PhD during two major crisis in your country; it happened to Kamaran Palani, PhD student at the Dual PhD Centre and ISGA who lives in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In spite of the difficulties in his county, Palani (34) stuck to his PhD-research about the fluidity…

Terrorism is not a successful communication strategy. After an attack, the attention quickly shifts from the terrorists to authorities and citizens. This is what Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn argues in her dissertation: 'The aftermath: meaning-making after terrorist attacks in Western Europe'. ‘A year…

Monica den Boer, who has decades of experience within police and defence and was also active as a Member of Parliament (D66), has been appointed extraordinary professor of Police Studies.

PhD ceremonies in the Academy Building will be much easier for family, friends and other non-specialist audience members to follow after the summer. The Doctorate Board is pleased to have decided that as of 1 September, all Leiden PhD candidates will begin their PhD defence with a lay talk. ‘It can…

A research team led by Dr. Yannick Veilleux-Lepage (Institute of Security and Global Affairs) in collaboration with Emil Archambault has secured funding from the Canadian Department of National Defence’s Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program to study the use of drones by violent…

The one-day symposium ‘War in Europe: the impact of Russian aggression in Ukraine two years on’ on 23 February 2024

Sergei Boeke has once again proven that there are more roads than one that lead to Rome with his PhD research into al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. It is both the core point of his conclusions as well as the leitmotiv for his approach. Boeke’s dissertation is comprised of five academic articles that…

Research

The mission in Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan was a formative experience for Dutch soldiers in which many lessons were learned. But most of those lessons have already been forgotten.