Each year, the Faculty of Science celebrates exceptional teaching with its annual award. Here you’ll find how the tradition began, how the winner is chosen, and where to explore the lecturers who have earned the title in previous years.

De opening of the Academic Year 2021-2022 took place on Monday 6 September 2021 in Pieterskerk church.

The opening of the Academic Year 2024-2025 took place on Monday 2 September 2024 in the Pieterskerk church.

The opening of the Academic Year 2017-2018 took place on Monday 4 September 2017 in Pieterskerk church.

De opening of the Academic Year 2023-2024 took place on Monday 4 September 2023 in Pieterskerk church.

De opening of the Academic Year 2022-2023 took place on Monday 5 September 2022 in Pieterskerk church.

The opening of the Academic Year 2018-2019 took place on Monday 3 September 2018 in Pieterskerk church.

Leiden University opened its doors in 1575 – the very first university in the Netherlands. The law faculty was involved from the start and so in 2025 they, too, were celebrating their 450th anniversary.

Asian Studies at Leiden University is unparalleled in the Netherlands and combines the very best of Asia-related research in North-West Europe.

This volume contributes to the scholarly debate regarding the reception of Cicero and focuses on one particular moment in Cicero’s life: the period from Caesar's death (March 44 BCE) up to Cicero’s own death (December 43 BCE).

Our Talents and Discoveries was a yearly publication by the Faculty of Science of Leiden University, published since 2003. You can read all the editions online. Note that the original publication was in Dutch; the original title translates as 'What we are proud of'. The last booklet came out in 2022,…

The opening of the Academic Year 2020-2021 took place on Monday 31 August 2020 in Pieterskerk church.

In 2018 the Central Asia Initiative at Leiden University offers several fieldwork grants to a max of 7,500 EUR. Only MA or MA Research students enrolled at Leiden University are eligible. The fieldwork should be carried out in one of the Central Asia countries by the end of 2018. The money can be used…

Leiden University has long history of research and teaching on Asian traditions, with a focus on language and philology, history, religious studies, philosophy, law and literature. Leiden has in the last thirty years also built up an equally impressive strength in the study of modern and contemporary…

They were called 'annoying brats', the group of campaigning scientists who in 1978 founded what is now an internationally acclaimed ecological research institute. Their stories and those of the current staff of the Institute of Environmental Sciences are described in the book 'Forty years of Leiden…

The Leiden Asia Year is almost here. Asia will be the key theme for the University and the city throughout 2017. If staff and students have any ideas about how to make the programme even better, we'd like to hear from you!

Since September 2001 Leiden University's Media Technology MSc program has educated modern academics, creative nerds, playful programmers, tinkering thinkers, and conceptual cross-disciplinarians. On May 13th, we celebrate!

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Taught by top researchers from a wide range of disciplines, the MA Chinese Studies at Leiden University combines in-depth knowledge with advanced language proficiency with a year-long stay in China.

LIAS is comprised of three research schools with expertise in different areas:

This research project focuses on the extended documentation and investigation of these non-Austronesian (‘Papuan’) languages.

Leiden Law Practices (LLP)

Below you can find lists of Leiden-based and international organizations working on Central Asia, and an overview of useful resources on Central Asia.

Find out how to apply for East Asian Studies at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Find out how to apply for South Asian Studies at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Below you can find an overview of our network.

While studying Indonesian languages and cultures, Rennie Roos started a company. Today he has been working in Indonesia for more than eight years. Where does his love for this country come from? And how does he look back on his studies? ‘I actually wanted to become a pilot.’

A delegation from Leiden University will be visiting several Japanese universities and research institutions from 18 to 26 November to discuss research and teaching collaborations.

Conference

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Links to related organisations, institutes, journals and archives.

Both on a personal and institutional level, the staff of Leiden CADS collaborates with:

Find out how to apply for Southeast Asian Studies at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

ERC Starting Grant: The Van Manen Project. This five year project (2023-2028) is made possible with an ERC Starting Grant. It aims to (digitally) reunite all parts of the Van Manen Collection. This enables us to study it as a whole, helping us to understand the process of collection formation. More…

How do digital technologies affect both Asian societies and the methods we use to study them? Conference in Leiden on 23-25 May 2016. Deadline abstract submission: 15 February 2016.

Brainstorm Session

The two-year master's in Korean Studies, a specialisation of Leiden University’s master's in Asian Studies, offers a varied selection of subjects and the freedom to choose electives. You can also choose a research subject of your interest for your MA thesis.

When Henriëtte Hoffman was ten years old she was enthralled by The Last Emperor, a 1987 film about the twelfth and last emperor of the Manchu dynasty. It was an interest that eventually led to a five-month stay in Chengde in China for her Asian Studies research master’s programme. During her time in…

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Research report January 2020. Supported by the lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’, research group ‘Making in Music’, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

The two-year master's programme in Japanese Studies, a specialisation of the MA in Asian Studies, offers teaching by leading academics and a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the East Asian region.

Get the most out of your studies at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Forgotten Lineages explores the paths through which generations of formally enslaved and their descendants gradually forgot their past of enslavement under Dutch and British imperial rule and became local subjects in Sri Lanka and South Africa. It explores why and how forgetting rather than memory became…

The MA Asian Studies East Asian Studies offers focused study of China, Japan or Korea. You can study the country of your choice from an expansive number of disciplinary perspectives including history, literature, art, art history, sociology, anthropology, media, cultural studies, religious studies,…

April 10 at 7 pm - April 12 at 8 pm

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker expressed his support in the media for 'The Real Opening,' the protest against government cuts. 'The plans are a disaster for higher education.' Professor Remco Breuker, one of the organisers of this protest on 2 September, called in NRC Handelsblad for a stop to the…