The Australian parliament passed a law banning social media for youth under sixteen in late November. This solves nothing, argues Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies, in NRC. ‘Services should be held to the law.’

Conspiracy theories are of all times, and the government should never dismiss them as a fantasy of fools. Certainly not now, when it turned out that authorities made a conspiracy themselves with a journalist threatened with murder. Which proves that the truth is always more insane than you could have…

After many years, Peter Hamersma will retire and resign as Programme Director for the BSc Molecular Science & Technology. His successor is Volkert van Steijn, who will start this new challenge per September 1st.

As of January 2017, LCDS-director Jaap van den Herik has been appointed member of the Advisory Board of WODC.

To support interdisciplinary research on today's world-scale changes and governing challenges, the GTGC programme awards a number of seed grants to scholars at Leiden University collaborating across different faculties and institutes.

What exactly do psychedelics do in our brains? To investigate this, NWO has awarded a Vidi grant to Michiel van Elk. The Leiden cognitive psychologist talks about his proposal for serious research into a widespread social phenomenon. 'People describe experiences under the influence of psychedelics that…

We are saddened by the news of the unexpected passing of prof.dr. Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld on 28 July 2021.

Alumnus Anoma van der Veere did Japanese studies and talks in this interview about his studies in Leiden and his work as a researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre and as Japanese correspondent in Tokyo.

Dutch and international students brandishing bows and arrows fire at each other on the fields of the University Sports Centre on 11 May. This is the aim – not the shooting each other, but the act of getting together.

Her specialist field is molecular astrophysics, and she is the most quoted scholar in her field. In this, the year of astronomy, she is the ideal person to give the Dies lecture at the university with the world's oldest astronomy institute; it goes without saying that the lecture will be on the newest…

Although the official start of the academic year has to wait for another fortnight, Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) welcomed the Class of 2024 to the Anna van Bueren campus this week. The new cohort of 204 incoming students will spend the next three years studying different majors and minors…

The European Research Council has awarded a Starting Grant to five early career scientists from Leiden University. They received funding up to 1.5 million euros to further expand on their research subject.

Leiden has the most highly regarded China Studies programme in Europe. But how did this knowledge find its way specifically to Leiden? For his PhD research Koos Kuiper delved into the unique history of the start of this unique programme.

On Thursday 31 October 2019 several graduation ceremonies for study programmes of the Institute of Public Administration were held. It was the first time these festivities took place at Campus The Hague.

Overview of granting opportunities in the wider digital humanities community. Follow links for the most up-to-date details on deadline dates/times and conditions for applying.

Inaugural lecture

Lecture

Inaugural lecture

Op 17 februari 1983 trad de geheel herziene Nederlandse Grondwet in werking. Het radioprogramma Villa VdB – gepresenteerd door Jurgen van den Berg – besteedde aandacht aan het 42-jarige jubileum van die gebeurtenis. Van den Berg ging daarover in gesprek met hoogleraar staatsrecht. Wim Voermans.

On January 11, 2025, our esteemed colleague and emeritus professor Arne van der Gen passed away. Arne was a professor of Organic Chemistry from 1980 until his retirement in 2000, and was a great advocate of the integration and harmonization of European education in chemistry. Arne was 90 years old.

On Friday 5 February 2021 the online conference of the Dutch Platform of Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) took place. This conference served as a platform to bring young, enthusiastic and driven ELS scholars together in a research community and enable them to learn more and discuss about empirical research…

The new academic year has started and with it education as well. Associate professor Dennis Claessen and Director of Education Han de Winde from the Institute of Biology Leiden devised an environmentally friendly introduction to the Leiden Bio Science Park for their students, with the help of Plastic…

On the 1st of October a new project funded by the Joint Industry Programme (JIP) started at the IBL on the potentially negative effects of sound on fish. Behavioural biologist and bioacoustic specialist Dr. Hans Slabbekoorn leads the international research team.

Hundreds of new students at Leiden University attended the opening of the 2015-2016 academic year. They came from all corners of the world for the start of their new study programme. Portraits of some of the newcomers.

Two research projects focused on democracy and citizen collectives have been awarded grants through the 2024 round of the National Science Agenda’s (NWA) ‘Onderzoek op Routes door Consortia (ORC)’. Each project will receive around €6.8 million to get started immediately.

Already one month has passed and the Archaeology classes are well underway. So what's it like to actually start your studies during Covid-19? Three first year students share their experiences with us.

The ERC Council has awarded Starting Grants to five promising Leiden researchers. With an impressive three laureates, the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has done particularly well. The fourth grant goes to the LUMC and the fifth to the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs.

This academic year 49 promising international students will start their master’s degree here thanks to a Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS). The students, all from outside the EU, were welcomed in a special ceremony on 5 September. Who are they?

Heart patients who maintain a healthy lifestyle can start earning discounts at shops or for trips out. The Tergooi Hospital is the first in the Netherlands to introduce this unique method that was co-developed by the research group headed by Professor of Health Psychology Andrea Evers and the Leiden…

Our solar system probably evolved in the same way as most of the other planetary systems around us. This has been shown by German-Austrian-Dutch research on more than 870 planet-forming disks in the Orion cloud A. The five researchers, including three from the Leiden Observatory, published their findings…

An international team of researchers led by Alice Booth (Leiden University, the Netherlands) have discovered methanol in the warm part of a planet-forming disk. The methanol cannot have been produced there and must have originated in the cold gas clouds from which the star and the disk formed. Thus,…

ELS@Leiden aims to give empirical legal research skills and interdisciplinarity a prominent place within the law school curriculum.

Growing health inequalities, rising healthcare costs, an ageing population, and shortages of healthcare staff are just some of the challenges facing healthcare, both in the Netherlands and beyond. These issues transcend the boundaries of the medical sector and touch on broader themes such as social…

Join-in courses zijn MA-cursussen over middeleeuwse onderwerpen gegeven binnen vastgestelde MA-programma's van de zes deelnemende universiteiten van de Onderzoekschool. Op aanvraag zijn deze vakken toegankelijk voor studenten van andere (Nederlandse) universiteiten. De cursusbelasting en het aantal…

CML Researcher Merlijn van Weerd wins Parker / Gentry Award 2015 for Conservation Biology at Field Museum Chicago in recognition of his commitment to biodiversity conservation in the Philippines

Vincent van Heuven passed away unexpectedly on Friday 6 February 2026 at the age of 76 at his home in Kûbaard (Friesland), the Netherlands.

The monthly ILS Lunch seminars bring together colleagues and students from Leiden Law School, providing an informal setting to hear what researchers from other research programs and institutes are working on. On Thursday 8 November, a new edition of the ILS Lunch Seminars takes place. This month, Philippe…

The Executive Board of Leiden University has distanced itself from the Minister of Education, Culture and Science’s response to the Van Rijn Committee report. According to the University’s calculations, following the advice would have serious financial consequences for the entire University and would…

Zeger van der Wal, Professor by special appointment Ien Dales chair at the Institute of Public Administration wrote an opinion piece in Dutch journal Binnenlands Bestuur on the changing relation between government and society and how this affects integrity.

Dubbel asiel aanvragen mag niet. Toch draagt Nederland slechts één op de vijf asielzoekers over aan andere landen tijdens een lopende asielprocedure. Dat blijkt uit cijfers van de Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst (IND). Universitair docent Mark Klaassen sprak hierover met EenVandaag.

Through the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, multiple gifted bachelor and master students of Leiden University and the University of the Arts The Hague can fully develop both their artistic and academic talents by choosing academic or artistic minors or electives.

The program for the Kaiser Spring Lectures 2018 has been published! Visit the Old Observatory in March for four amazing lectures about the Space Age.

Between the early thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries CE, the Sultanate of Cairo affected the balances of power elites across and beyond the regions of Egypt, Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. Modern historiography has for a long time been determined by the idea of this sultanate as a highly…

Manon van der Heijden and Leo Lucassen have been awarded funding from the NWO's Free Competition Humanities. They received the grant for their research on conflicts and jurisdiction over migrants and natives between 1600 and 1900.

Former PhD student Gerard van Westen was granted the C.J. Kok Award also known as “Discoverer of the Year”. A festive ceremony took place at the Faculty’s New Year’s reception on January 7, 2014.

On 28 and 29 October, the first Van Wittel/ Vanvitelli dialogue took place at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague. The Van Wittel/Vanvitelli Dialogue is a high-level roundtable on Italian-Dutch relations, organised by the Clingendael Institute and the Institute for International Affairs in Rome,…

Dr. Van Eijk will teach an advertising technology Masterclass for the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) next week. It is the fourth session of the FPF & Brussels Privacy Hub's Digital Data Flows series. Van Eijk will be teaching alongside Adam Towvim (Brandeis International Business School) and moderated…

On 10 March students of the advanced master's in International Children’s Rights and the Dutch Child Law master's watched the documentary Shadow Game with filmmaker Els van Driel.

Peter Paul van Benthem is not only head of the ENT department at the LUMC but also chair of the Federation of Medical Specialists. ‘The value is in the mix.’

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