From the start of your PhD you make agreements with your supervisors concerning your personal development and the supervision you receive. These agreements should be recorded in a Training and Supervision Plan. This plan contains agreements concerning your research, supervision, training, and potential…

Graduation is an important occasion both for the student and for the University. This is the point in time when a student becomes an alumnus. The University is eager to maintain lifelong contact with its alumni.

Each degree programme has its own programme committee. This is a legal requirement. Students and lecturers sit on the programme committee. Together they monitor the quality of the teaching, flag up any problems and advise on the development and implementation of the teaching policy.

The university encourages its employees to use and develop their talents. We do this by supporting you in your career and in your personal and professional development. We try to ensure that you get the opportunity to realise your full potential. That is why the university offers a wide range of training…

The Organisational Development team, led by rector Erwin Muller, has organized numerous meetings with colleagues from a variety of university departments over the last few months. Together, they’ve looked at organisational challenges, bottlenecks and opportunities. From these meetings, a strong demand…

Zār jewellery from Egypt can be found in many museums and private collections in the West, but for a long time very little was known about it, except that it was used in rituals to protect against spirit possession. PhD candidate Sigrid van Roode has explored its history and discovered that the jewellery…

As well as offering students a first-rate education, Leiden University provides a wide range of training for professionals, so they can be lifelong learners. And that is not just of value to participants. ‘As a university, you start a dialogue with society to achieve better knowledge together.’

In Berlin, regulations have recently been amended to allow everyone to swim topless. In swimming pools in Amsterdam, women are still required to wear a top piece. Dutch newspaper Het Parool investigates whether Amsterdam swimmers also have the right to dive into the pool without wearing a top.

Almost three years after receiving her honorary doctorate, Dr Graça Machel returned to Leiden University. Over the course of two days she spoke with students, researchers, and other interested persons, about human rights – particularly those of women and children – in a world in which these are continually…

From 23 to 24 February 2023, the Conference ‘The Future of the European Security Architecture: The CJEU’s decision on Passenger Name Records and beyond’ took place at the KNAW in Amsterdam.

In an article by the New York Times, cultural heritage law specialist Evelien Campfens discusses the difficulties surrounding the ownership of looted art.

Good lecturers are extremely important to our university. I therefore think it is crucial that we provide them with enough professional development opportunities. The Lecturer Development Taskforce has issued concrete recommendations on how to improve this. As the Board we welcome this advice.

The Advisory Committee on Public International Law (Dutch abbreviation CAVV) is an independent body which provides the government and parliament of the Netherlands with advice, both solicited and unsolicited, on issues related to public international law.

The Netherlands is known globally for being a champion of equality. But is it really? On 8 March, International Women's Day, three Leiden experts reflect on this year's national theme: #NietMijnRecht (#NotMyRight)

Doing a PhD can be challenging. Moving to a foreign country can be challenging too. PhD candidate Ilya Kokorin, who was born in a small town in Siberia, faced both, while at the same time having to overcome a number of additional challenges and build a future post-PhD.

Collaboration is becoming increasingly important in university education, but how do you get students to actually work together? On a special training day, lecturers from the Faculty of Humanities pondered these and other questions. What did they learn and what do they take with them into their teac…

For two years, Ineke Sluiter was president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Now, she is returning to the university full time. ‘I always carry themes like accessibility, diversity and inclusion with me.’

A consortium led by Leiden University has been awarded 6.75 million euros to research traumascapes: physical places associated with collective trauma and loss. The research team aims to make these places more visible, accessible and inclusive.

Many students dread writing a thesis. Master’s student Laura Robustella's practice-based thesis shows that it is well worth the effort. She developed an art exhibition based on her master’s thesis.

Due to an exception in the law, domestic workers employed by private persons cannot automatially benefit from social security schemes. Home help Carol Kollmann did not agree with this and took her case to court.

Stay tuned for updates on relevant media appearances of Anne-Laura van Harmelen.

A large research group involving Leiden University as corresponding Host Institution has been awarded a major European grant, the ERC Synergy Grant. This for research on how Europe developed after the fall of the Roman Empire with special attention to the yet underexplored but undoubtedly important…

In the Spanish town of Guadalajara, there is a street named ‘Burgemeester Fluiterstraat’, named after a descendant of Leiden migrants who had done well in the South. He was not the only Guadalajara resident with Leiden roots: at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a stream of Dutch textile workers…

As of 1 September , Karel Berkhoff has been appointed professor by special appointment in Ukrainian History. In this position, made possible in part by the KNAW, he will focus primarily on dark moments in recent Ukrainian history: the persecutions that have taken place in the first half of the twentieth…

Online webinar

Three years on, and interest in Ukraine certainly hasn't waned. The auditorium at the Wijnhaven location was fully booked on Monday. Hundreds of people, including top military brass, listened to Defence Minister Brekelmans' speech. He pointed out to them: 'Here in the Netherlands, we're now living in…

Does the university value teaching less than research? Can you advance in science without academic awards? Which scholars inspire you? Does the university pay enough attention to both your academic achievements and your personal well-being?

Leiden biologists have found a mutation in flour beetles that allows them to speed up their development. The study has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Leiden University alumni can make use of a number of University services: ULCN, career support, mentoring network and the Young Alumni Network.

The Development and Alumni Relations department offers a number of offline and online communication resources for alumni. Alumni are approached via the Leidraad magazine, the digital newsletter Alumni News and the alumni website. The University also manages a number of social media accounts especially…

The university strives to create a pleasant working environment for everyone. From terms of employment to health and development: here you will find the right information and support.

Lecture

Chris Suijker, since 1 July the new director of Real Estate, likes healthy and sustainable university buildings where you ‘get the feeling you’re right at the heart of society’. Her aim is to achieve the same effect with even more buildings.

Learn how silence can benefit your well-being during Work Stress Week from 11 to 15 November. It’s no surprise that we sometimes need a bit of peace and quiet, says Professor of Auditory Culture Marcel Cobussen. ‘Our brain is exposed day and night to auditory stimuli.’

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we’re spotlighting the importance of digital safety in the workplace. Our Chief Information Security Officer, Sylvia Bunte-Thelen, shares how staff can help keep our university a safe place to work and study. ‘We need to work together to protect our knowledge.…

A growing number of AI tools are being developed for the legal sector, to help professionals search lengthy texts or check court rulings. Leiden SAILS researcher Masha Medvedeva, an expert on the technical development of these systems, warns: ‘Users should know what’s under the hood.’

What do you build with when trees are scarce and winters are brutal? For hunter-gatherers living in current-day Ukraine some 18,000 years ago, the answer was simple: mammoth bones.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has granted four grants to Leiden humanities scholars. They get to spend this money on research on a topic of their choice, without thematic preconditions.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a €4.84 million NWO Large grant to set up a new state-of-the-art laboratory for isotope geochemistry. The new lab, the “Netherlands Isotope GEochemistry Laboratory” (NIGEL), will be built in the brand new VU Research Building at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.…