What is the effect of a certain regime on a country’s migration policy? Political scientist Katharina Natter compared the migration policy of autocratic Morocco with that of democratising Tunisia. Her findings challenge some of the core assumptions.

Not all gay and lesbian students feel equally safe at their sports clubs. ‘Homo’ is used almost unthinkingly as a term of abuse and players often face homophobic comments. What can sports clubs and teams do to make sure everyone feels safe when playing sports?

More papers, more grants, more students: constant growth is still the gold standard at universities. Neuroscientists Anne Urai and Claire Kelly argue that this mentality obstructs us in resolving such complex societal problems as the climate crisis. Their alternative? The university as a doughnut.

Novel language learning activates different neural processes than was previously thought. A Leiden research team has discovered parallel but separate contributions from the hippocampus and Broca's area, the learning centre in the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere of the brain also seems to play…

Dr. Josien de Klerk, Associate professor in Global Public Health at Leiden University College The Hague recently published some of her work on HIV/AIDS. In collaboration with a team of interdisciplinary researchers from the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development she came to the conclusion…

The Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University ran an excavation project in Northern Syria, at Tell Hammam al Turkman, some 80 km north of Raqqa. The Faculty of Archaeology and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research N.W.O. finance the undertaking, which is directed by dr Diederik J.W.…

As a graduate of the BA English Language and Culture programme you’ll be very knowledgeable about a language that’s spoken all over the world and of a culture that’s influenced many other countries. With your ability to communicate and present yourself in English, you’ll be ideally qualified for a wide…

Course, Summer School

Starting 1 September, three new Programme Directors will begin at FWN. Daan van der Es, Reinout van Weeren, and Amineh Ghorbani will each be responsible for a master's programme in our faculty.

The Dutch police face complex challenges, from organised crime and polarisation to digitalisation and new forms of crime. To deal with this effectively, they need innovation and intensive collaboration, says Professor by Special Appointment of Police Studies, Monica den Boer, in her inaugural lectur…

Managers in the public and semi-public sector work in an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment, which demands new knowledge and competences but also offers tremendous opportunities. This will be the view presented by Zeger van der Wal, professor by special appointment in Public Administration,…

Gender beliefs father make bigger difference

She started her career in the police force, walking the beat as an officer. Now she has been appointed Extraordinary Professor of Diversity, Inclusion and Policing at Leiden University. Things have come full circle for Saniye Çelik. ‘It's very special.’

Between 1798 and 1813 successive regimes attempted to enforce a fundamental geographical and administrative redivision of the Netherlands. The provinces that had been sovereign states within the Republic of the United Netherlands for over two centuries were dissolved and replaced by ‘departments’, subordinate…

The role of religion in the identity construction of LGBTQIA+ folks

The need for knowledge among practitioners and the lack of an academic knowledge base for specifically collective arrangements of social work in the Netherlands were the reason for Anouk de Koning, Femke Kaulingfreks and Maartje van der Woude to start working on a Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) application…

Three decades ago, cyber-diplomacy did not exist. The interest in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a vector of change in international relations was limited to a few mostly technical organisations, and a restricted number of states.

Light makes us flourish – in this respect we humans are just like a rose or an azalea. Light can also be used to treat people who are ill. In Leiden, Sylvestre Bonnet and Esther Habers are working – each in their own discipline – on new applications of light in a clinical context.

At a time when the climate crisis demands global action, Leiden University College’s (LUC) research project REFloC (Resilient Ecosystems and Flourishing Communities) in Ghana is choosing a different path: listening closely.

For some time blackbirds have been settling in towns as well as in woods. As a result, town blackbirds have now begun to develop differently from their counterparts in forests. These are the findings of the PhD research carried out by behavioural biologist Erwin Ripmeester who defends his dissertation…

Climate change is affecting all areas of human life. 2024 has been the hottest year on record and natural disasters are becoming increasingly frequent around the globe. Every year since 1995, national delegations come together to address the climate crisis through the Conference of the Parties to the…

From children’s birthday parties to international ambassadors, the Old Observatory attracts a wide range of visitors. Student coordinator Sanne van Beek connects visitors and students, ensuring everyone — from five to sixty-five — learns something about the stars.

Endocannabinoids - the body's own marijuana - are promising departure points for drug research. Professor of Molecular Physiology Mario van der Stelt examines whether inhibiting their production can be a way to fight inflammatory brain disease and to combat obesity. Inaugural lecture 19 October.

Deadline approaching: Applications are still open for the Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ (16 - 20 June 2025) for Master-level and PhD students. Application deadline: 15 May 2025.

On 29 and 30 November, Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) hosted this year’s Cyberspace conference, where Gavin workshopped a paper-in-progress entitled ‘Ready! Fire! Aim? EU law’s battle for relevance in the war against terrorist content online’.

In Spring next year, a new and international team of archaeologists, historians, and education experts will start a collaborative project on the archaeology of Molise. The project is generously funded by l’Istituto Regionale per gli Studi Storici del Molise “Vincenzo Cuoco” (IRESMO).

Ida Haisma has been appointed Director of the Leiden Bio Science Park. She will lead the transformation of the Leiden Bio Science Park from science park to innovation district. To this end, she will set up a new park organisation and act as the spokesperson for the park.

Discussing or giving a lecture about a war situation is no easy task. Nonetheless – or maybe for this very reason – students or lecturers do feel the need to have such a discussion during classes. We share here a number of tips and sources to steer the conversation or lecture in the right direction.

As of 1 April 2025, Lodewijk Govaerts will be standing down from the Board of Governors due to other commitments that will demand a significant part of his time and attention within the foreseeable future. Govaerts does not want this to affect his ability to fulfil his role on the Board of Governors…

Every year, Leiden University welcomes some 27,000 students from 115 different countries. In educating these students, we are committed to ensuring that the quality of our tuition meets or exceeds the highest-possible standards.

According to Afshin Ellian, Professor of Jurisprudence, the new Iran starts with a referendum. In WNL’s ‘Goedemorgen Nederland’ programme, he says: ‘You’ll need to build a wall around Iran's constitutional future.’

How can we slow the progression of atherosclerosis? Researcher Amanda Foks believes the answer may be switching off ageing immune cells. This could lead to an entirely new treatment for heart attacks and strokes. She has been awarded an Established Investigator Dekker Grant by the Dutch Heart Founda…

OSCNL, the international network of Open Science Communities, receives recognition

When we talk about the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it is not just about the Netherlands. On the contrary: our Kingdom consists of no less than four countries, three of which are Caribbean islands. This structure is complex, to say the least. Although all countries are officially equivalent, in practice…

Professor Bussemaker and Professor Koenders draw lessons from the handling of the current corona crisis. In a blended guest lecture with some 60 students in Wijnhaven and some 250 online participants, they entered into a discussion led by Willemijn Aerdts. The guest lecture took place on May 25.

As of 1 July, toxicologist Mirjam Luijten from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) starts as professor by special appointment at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR).

Knowledge generated by development-led archaeology about the Late Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age and the start of the Middle Bronze Age (2850 - 1500 cal BC) in the Netherlands

The central aims of this project are to establish the shapes of the various urban hierarchies existing in the provinces of the Roman Empire and (especially) to use the quantitative properties of these hierarchies to shed new light on levels of economic integration.

School pupils are all different, which is why there is differentiation in our education system. This can be seen in pre-university education and lower vocational schools, and also takes the form of ability groups in junior schools. But according to Professor by Special Appointment Eddie Denessen, differentiation…

The housing crisis is affecting a substantial group of Dutch citizens and is one of the main election themes this year. How did things get this far and what should the new cabinet do in the coming four years to address the problems? Three Leiden researchers give their answer.

Industrial ecologists Stefano Cucurachi and Flora Siebler are part of the new consortium PROGENY, which received 3.6 million euros from the European Commission. PROGENY is an exciting project that will study the possibilities of soap films for innovations, such as ultra-thin screens.

Thursday afternoon 31 May the Public Leadership Challenge took place in the Living Lab, of Leiden University The Hague. During this afternoon a diverse group of professionals, academics and students focused on the challenge of autonomy in the digital society. Working together on this complex and interesting…

She began as an IT professional but after 7 years in the business world, she devoted herself to an entirely different field: Islamic Theology. As co-founder of the Leiden Islam Academy, Fatiha Azzarhouni now works at Leiden University to increase understanding of Islam in Dutch society.

Every year, student mentors are appointed for first-year students at Leiden University. These mentors help new students with getting started. Tatum Meijer is a student mentor, for the bachelor's programme English. Especially now, in a period of crisis, the role of student mentor is very important.

By working together with external social partners, the knowledge of our scientists finds its way into society.

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Governments and public sector organisations consider evidence-based or evidence-informed policymaking as one of the pillars of good governance. That is to say: policies that are informed by scientific knowledge, expertise and evidence. In the research programme 'Power of Evidence', Valérie Pattyn and…

A new app is able to calculate personalised survival probabilities for patients suffering from soft tissue sarcoma. Doctors and patients can use the app to calculate personalised survival probabilities together. Mathematician Anja Rüten-Budde received her doctorate for her research into survival probability…

Thursday 1 October, Humanities Lab hosted the second edition of the Humanities Lab Cafe; this edition’s theme was migration. Professors Leo Lucassen and Piet Emmer were invited to offer the audience their points of view, after which there would be time for a discussion with all those present. At half…