Students and staff from Leiden University are protesting in The Hague on 25 November against the billions in cuts to higher education. ‘The cuts are a terrible idea and we want to show why’, says Claire Weeda from WOinActie. ‘Research and teaching are essential to society.’

From the workload to sustainability: the University Council helps decide on important topics. In the University elections – from 9 to 13 May – you can vote for who will represent you on the Council. Three questions to the three lead candidates of the staff parties: PhDoc, Universitair Belang and Leidse…

The new Neurodiversity Platform supports staff who need better working conditions because they have ADHD or autism, for instance. Stefan de Jong, who is organising the Platform’s first online meeting on 15 November, tells us about the initiative. Register now if you’re interested.

Employee participation an issue that is not of your interest? On the contrary, your vote directly affects your working environment at Psychology. You know, where you give your best every working day. Three of our colleagues are getting in the race for a spot in the Unversity Council. Take that chance…

The programme committees at Leiden Law School play an important role in staff and student participation. What are the activities of such commitee?

The BA Religious Studies programme has been awarded the label 'Topopleiding' (Top Education) in the Keuzegids 2021.

There are lots of important items on the education and teaching agenda for 2024. Reaccreditation for the Law programmes including Notarial Law and Tax Law degree programmes, preparations for the implementation of the Kernvisie Bachelor, a new online teaching platform and a Teaching Fair, to name just…

Facility

Leiden University wants to be a safe and inclusive learning and working environment for all its students and staff. In an interview with XperHR HR knowledge platform, Diversity Officer and lecturer Aya Ezawa and HR director Esther van Opstal explain why all-gender toilets are an important part of our…

Organisation

Education

A national walkout will be staged on Monday 13 May. Leiden Scholars for Palestine has called on students and staff from Leiden University to meet at 11.00 at the Lipsius building in Leiden and the Wijnhaven building in The Hague.

ICT

Library, Security

From choosing the right tools to locking your screen when you go to get a coffee: it’s often the little things that help you work securely. With our campaign ‘Check it: work privacy and security smart’, in the coming month we are focusing on protecting our information and data, including personal data.…

The '450 Event Committee' has been planning the faculty's anniversary year for months. The powerhouses behind LAWLANDS are Hannah Saberi and Britt Polderman. We spoke to them ahead of the 450 summer celebration on 19 June.

Organisation

Wat betekent de faculteitsraad voor medewerkers en hoe stel je jezelf verkiesbaar? Gelijn Molier, universitair hoofddocent bij Encyclopedie van de Rechtswetenschap, zit sinds 2019 in de faculteitsraad, vanaf dit jaar als voorzitter: ‘Mensen onderschatten dat je echt invloed kan hebben.’

For over a year now, ombuds officer Marjan van Dasselaar has been devoting her efforts to a safer work environment at the university. What are her first impressions of this period? ‘People should feel free to call me sooner and more often, also for seemingly trivial situations.’

In recent months, the Work Balance in Action core group has taken several steps to improve the work balance at the Faculty of Humanities. The programme is now ready to be shared more widely across the faculty. Core group members Annemiek Hogendorp, Jaap Kamphuis and Ylva Klaassen tell us what to exp…

On 14 July, the University Council discussed the draft version of the new ‘security framework’ with the Executive Board. This framework should make Leiden University’s security policy more transparent.

Afronding decanaat Joanne van der Leun

Jasper Knoester, decaan van de Faculteit Wiskunde & Natuurwetenschappen, blikt terug op 2025 in "het jaar van Jasper".

Leiden University is switching to a new system for HR, finance and purchasing on 1 January 2026, after 27 years of using SAP. We spoke to Wouter Peters, Director of ASSC and Programme Director of BAS, about what this means for the university and you as a member of staff.

How do we offer students a helping hand without losing sight of our own well-being? This was the question that study advisers, lecturers, deans and student support staff tried to answer at the Staff Symposium on Student Well-being.

How can we continue to work on an open university culture where everyone’s contribution is recognised and rewarded? Over 120 university staff spoke about breaking academic barriers at the first Academia in Motion Festival in PLNT.

Another year has reached its end. And what a year it has been! On December 17th staff and students of the Faculty of Archaeology came together to celebrate and reminisce. The event's central topic was the closure of the 50 year anniversary of the collaboration between the Faculty of Archaeology and…

We had more than 20 participants from all parts of the faculty participating in one of 4 sessions at the end of May and early June. It became evident from the discussions that there are many things that the faculty can and should work on in order to foster an inclusive and safe work environment where…

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.

Who will represent us on the university’s participation councils? The results of the 2021 university elections have been announced. New representatives will be joining many of the participation bodies at the university – the faculty councils, the employee councils and the University Council.

Monday 14 November marks the start of the Week on the International Student. The perfect moment to reveal our new Acts of Kindness Pillar. At 12.00 hours on the dot, the festive reveal will take place in the restaurant at KOG. Everyone is cordially invited to take part in the ceremony and have some…

In a confidential meeting, the University Council (UR) and the Executive Board (CvB) have discussed security within our buildings, partly as a result of media reports on this topic that appeared during the summer. The University Council has shared concerns expressed by staff and students concerning…

Evaluations of a most challenging year to both staff and students in terms of teaching and education support have turned out remarkably well. Although we had to switch to online education almost overnight, we pulled it off!

Last weekend, all university buildings were closed and the university systems were unavailable. The reason for this was the major maintenance of the university network. The network’s core needed to be shut down for this, including all supplies and services. A large group of staff from ISSC as well as…

Organisation

As of this academic year, all our faculties will be using the same platform for digital assessment: Ans. While this platform is already familiar in many faculties, it will be new for the staff and students of Social & Behavioural Sciences (from 1 September) and Humanities (from 1 February), as they…

Healthy University Leiden held its ‘From #COVID to #GOFIT Week’ from 21 to 25 June. Over 600 students and staff found inspiration in a week full of tips and tricks on how to get fit after Covid. So what now? We‘ve compiled a list of tips and activities specially for you. Take a look and enjoy!

The development of the Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP) did not come to a standstill over the summer. We now have a draft version of the Plan that incorporates the feedback on the strategic objectives that we obtained from various meetings and bodies before the summer. The Research Directors and a number…

The Faculty of Archaeology is on the eve of a new Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP) that will cover the years 2026-2028. Dean Jan Kolen stresses the importance of involving both staff and students in this process. 'We want everyone to think along about the direction we should take as a faculty. We want a…

Organisation

How can inclusive communication make you feel welcome at a university? That is one of the questions that will be discussed at the D&I Symposium 2023 on 19 January. We ask Diversity Officer Aya Ezawa three questions about this symposium.

Board members Annetje Ottow and Hester Bijl recently visited the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL, Faculty of Humanities) and the Mathematical Institute (MI, Faculty of Science). This was the start of a series of visits to institutes at our university. The focus is on talking to researchers…

Starting four years ago, the same privacy laws apply throughout the European Union: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The law also affects our work at the university. As a refresher, we spoke with Privacy Officer Max van Arnhem about privacy in the workplace and what to do if something…

How can we work together to create a safe study and learning environment and offer students the support that they need? The Vision on Student Well-Being outlines the University’s plans to promote student well-being in the coming years.

The LTC Hub, the online knowledge base for all matters related to education and teaching at Leiden Law School, is available from today. You can access the Hub via the banner on the staff website.

As part of Leiden University’s aim to be a safe and healthy environment for all staff and students, several activities and lectures were organised in an action week around suicide prevention. Dedicated benches were also placed at several university buildings, including at the Faculty of Humanities.

I was disgusted by the recent Ongehoord Nederland broadcast on 15 September. The racist and hateful comments made by alumna Raisa Blommesteijn were, as far as I am concerned, way over the line and in my opinion also violate Article 1 of the Constitution of the Netherlands.

Medewerkers van de Universiteit Leiden trappen maandag 10 maart de estafettestaking af van de Nederlandse universiteiten tegen de kabinetsbezuinigingen.