By effectively integrating world-class scientific research and excellent education, you will become a professional astronomer with an internationally recognized degree.

The Faculty of Humanities offers an inspiring international working environment with room for diversity and innovation to staff and students from home and abroad.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Thousands of students and researchers from eight partner universities in the Netherlands and Flanders have been able to gain valuable experience in Egypt through the institute. Good reason for a celebrat…

From 2-4 November Jorrit Rijpma taught the students of the Master in European Law at the European Public Law Institute in Athens.

How do young zebra finches learn to sing? A research team led by researcher Katharina Riebel has developed a ‘RoboFinch’ to study just that. She and colleagues in the 'Seeing voices' research consortium have spent the past four years designing the robotic bird. And with success: young zebra finches…

Recent studies have shown that Dutch secondary school pupils experience a great deal of stress from school work, and between 2001 and 2007 the number of adolescents experiencing school stress even doubled. The study carried out by Simone Vogelaar focuses on stress factors and the effectiveness of the…

On 1 January Minna Valjakka was appointed Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory from a Global Perspective. Valjakka sees her appointment as 'extremely topical' because of the discussions about the decolonisation of the arts: 'Art teaches us not just about art, but also about contemporary…

In the Faculty of Archaeology depots, many artefacts, accumulated after decades of fieldwork across the world are stored. The Leiden Inventory of the Depot (LID) project aims to unlock the door to this wealth of information. Elizabeth Hicks, a Research Master’s student at the Faculty, will be re-evaluating…

Data Science

On May 9th 2023, LUGO hosted its big Sustainability Day Event, on the theme: the planetary boundaries! The event, which took place at the Academy Building in Leiden, included an opening talk by Prof.dr.ing. Jan Willem Erisman, among others. At the closing, LUGO also awarded its first place prize for…

The Modern and Contemporary Cluster is the largest within LUCAS and home to more than 100 staff members and PhD candidates. Hosting a diverse group of young and advanced scholars, it offers an especially fruitful and dynamic environment for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Travel back in time and learn about how the University has changed over the centuries.

Profile Area Political Legitimacy, Leiden University

Research groups in the Quantum Matter & Optics programme investigate electronic properties of matter and light-matter interactions with emphasis on quantum information.

The Mathematical Institute is responsible for the research and education in mathematics and statistics at Leiden University.

Methodology and Statistics focuses on the development, evaluation and application of statistical models for the analysis of psychological research data.

Below you will find an overview of how researchers from the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs and their research appear in the media, and you can read more about topics that concern the Faculty.

The Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University is located in the administrative heart of the Netherlands, The Hague. From this central location, the institute bridges academic research and practical application to address current issues both domestically and internationally.

Cooperation with Latin America aims to build on the long-standing relation that Leiden University has with multiple partners in the region.

The Austrian Studies Fund supports the Special Chair for Central European Studies, invites visiting professors from Austria and connects with Austria Centres over the world.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching.

Get the most out of your Air and Space programme at Leiden University by taking part in our extracurricular activities.

Leiden University is a unique international centre for the advanced study of languages, cultures, arts, and societies worldwide, in their historical contexts from prehistory to the present.

Lecturers had a week to move their courses online. An enormous challenge because remote teaching definitely wasn’t commonplace at Leiden University. Suzan Verberne, a lecturer and researcher at LIACS, shares her experiences. ‘I tried to do too much in my first week working from home.’

2025 was a year to remember at our faculty. We celebrated our 450th anniversary, launched new degree programmes and welcomed many inspiring speakers, yet we also felt the weight of budget constraints. Our year in a nutshell:

Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology focuses on the application of scientific psychological knowledge of social processes within and between groups of people and individuals, in organisations, but also during economic and consumer decisions.

Professor Meta Roestenberg has been awarded the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus 2025 by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW). The prize of EUR 1 million will allow Roestenberg and her team to further develop an innovative malaria vaccine.

Lecturers had a week to convert their courses to online teaching. An enormous challenge because remote teaching definitely wasn’t commonplace at Leiden University, and some lecturers have to share their ‘lecture hall’ with their children or partners. Alexander Pleijter, a lecturer in Journalism and…

Our lecturers had just a week to convert their lessons into online formats. It was an enormous challenge because by no means everyone at Leiden University was involved in online teaching. Professor of Korea Studies Remco Breuker has found that doing everything on line takes a lot more time. 'I've also…

You may know it by the umbrella term 'citizen science'. You may also use terms such as volunteer mapping, patient co-researcher, or even community engaged learning to describe participatory practices in your research or teaching. No matter what you call it, there’s plenty going on when it comes to this…

Betty de Jonge is a household name in our faculty. As the person behind AskBetty, she knew how to answer every question about Office. Starting this month, she has officially retired.

Cybersecurity doesn’t start with your first job – it starts with your first phone. According to Sofian Fesenko, a student of Crisis and Security Management (CSM), digital resilience needs to be built from a young age. That’s why he developed an educational card game to raise children’s awareness of…

Mrs. Dr. Constance (Stans) Eikelenboom passed away on Sunday, March 12th, at the age of 95. She was the founder of the 'Stans Award', a prize which every year has been given to the best student article of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML).

Our lecturers had just a week to convert their subjects into online formats. It was an enormous challenge because by no means everyone was involved in remote teaching at Leiden University. As well as being Vice-Dean of Leiden Law School, Ton Liefaard is also a lecturer. ‘I especially want to support…

An astonishing twelve students from Leiden University have received a Young Talent Award from the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities in Haarlem, a record. During the festive ceremony on 25 November, five master students received a Young Talent Graduation Award for their thesis and seven…

The Leiden University Centre for Innovation and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have won the Surfnet Innovation Challenge. The team won the prize with an experiment to link a virtual 3D anatomical model to a living human body.

Laura Heitman won the prize for Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia and the 2017 RSC MedChemComm prize.

During the digital education seminar 'Reflections on 2020 and new perspectives for 2021', we will discuss our achievements in online & blended education. There will be a diverse selection of workshops relevant for anyone involved in education. Senior university lecturer Jan Sleutels will be giving a…

As many as seven first-year students from the Faculty of Science were honoured as young talents. In addition, the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) also lauded three master's students and an astronomy project during a vibrant ceremony on 28 November. Professor of Science Communication…

Environmental scientists Stefano Cucurachi and Paul Behrens and astronomer Jorryt Matthee have received prizes during the New Year's reception of the Faculty of Science on Tuesday 8 January. In addition, Kavli Prize winner Ewine van Dishoeck announced a new award.

To develop a new generation of brain science (and train scientists) focused on explaining complex real-world behavioural patterns.

The Institute of Psychology is committed to play a prominent role in teaching and research at the national and international level.

Using enslaved people as servants, becoming an administrator in the Dutch West India Company or making uniforms for the colonial army. Many people from Leiden played a role in colonialism and slavery. Historians are conducting preliminary research and finding striking examples.

What is ‘teaching excellence’ in Higher Education? Which different teaching excellence training, promotion and reward schemes exist across Europe? How can a common European teaching scheme look like? The e-NOTE project led by Leiden University with the participation of Charles University and other partners…

She has held office for over a hundred days, and is enthusiastic about what she has seen of the University thus far. Bursting with energy, she has plans aplenty for the teaching. An interview with ‘new’ Vice-Rector Magnificus of Leiden University, Hester Bijl.

Good news for Linguistics alumna Anne-Mieke Thieme, who has won the thesis prize awarded by the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL). ‘I emailed my thesis supervisor right away.’

A true shower of awards for students from the Faculty of Science during the annual KHMW Young Talent Awards ceremony. On Monday, 25 November, no less than nine first-year students received a prize for the best academic results in their first year. In addition, there were graduation prizes for master’s…

Lots of employees celebrated special successes in 2023. Here’s a list of all those scholarships, awards and honours.

In 2020, many of our staff and students have again won prestigious prizes and been awarded important research subsidies.

Many of our staff and students have won prizes over the past year. Others have been awarded a subsidy, or, because of their eminence in their field, they have been appointed member of an academic society or have taken on a position in the community. Reasons enough to be proud of them and to include…