What does the excavated material tell us about the continuation and/or change of urban life during the transitional phrases from Antiquity to the Middle Ages on Crete and in the eastern Mediterranean more generally?

The oldest university in the Netherlands has produced many well-known scientists. Some of them are known to the wider public; others are perhaps less well known, but their achievements are no less impressive.

Doctoral research on recent developments in museological practices by “critical” curators, interventionist artists, and personnel initiatives, focusing on ‘queering’ as an entrance point to broader intersectional issues; resulting in a report on the ‘Queer Baseline’ (to be launched in 2020), a popular…

Discover the admission requirements for the MSc International Organisation at Leiden University in The Hague. Includes 80 ECTS, English test scores (IELTS/TOEFL), and supporting documents.

Is there extra-terrestrial life out there? It now looks as though we can sketch out an answer to this enduring question. Leiden Observatory is helping to build new instruments to find the most promising exoplanets.

If The Hague is completely new to you, perhaps you should consider joining a student association? It’ll be a great way to quickly get to know people and build up a network that will prove invaluable long after you’ve finished your master’s.

Review the admission requirements for the MSc Dutch Politics at Leiden University: required bachelor degree, academic credits, and language proficiency criteria.

Leiden University offers ambitious students the latest knowledge and the freedom to develop their own area of expertise.

Becoming a member of a student association is the best way to quickly feel at home in The Hague. You’ll soon get to know people and you’ll make new friends for life.

Check the admission requirements for the MSc Political Theory: Legitimacy and Justice at Leiden University — bachelor degree in (or related to) Political Science with sufficient relevant credits and, if needed, research‑methodology background.

There’s more to life than studying hard; sometimes you just need to relax. It’s good to know then that The Hague’s offering in the area of sport and culture is surprisingly extensive.

Summer School

This Philosophy bachelor's programme offers perspectives from around the world. It will make you one of the next generation of students who will shape philosophy in the 21st century, ready to take on academic or professional challenges that call for critical thinking, analysis and argumentation skil…

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden University’s Faculty of Science with two Nigerian universities, the Center for Basic Space Science and University of Nigeria.

Astronomers have discovered an enormous supply of cold molecular gas in a galaxy shortly after the Big Bang. The finding offers a rare glimpse of the raw material from which the first large galaxies were built. Measurements suggest that around 95 per cent of the normal matter in the galaxy studied,…

Drones zijn in korte tijd onderdeel geworden van het dagelijks leven. Ze worden gebruikt door hobbyisten, bedrijven, politie en defensie. Tegelijkertijd groeit de zorg dat dezelfde technologie ook kan worden ingezet door kwaadwillenden. Onderzoeker en promovendus Stijn Willem van 't Land zocht dit u…

A fresh semester means a fresh faculty calendar. There is plenty to do at the faculty again in the coming months. Five interesting activities are listed below.

On December 13th & 14th Singer Niels Berentsen will defend his thesis Discantare super planum cantum. New Approaches to Polyphonic Improvisation 1300-1470 to obtain his doctoral degree.

The Leiden Archaeology social media team presents its first documentary on one of our faculty's research projects. A team led by Bleda Düring, Victor Klinkenberg, and Maria Hadjigavriel explores the Cypriot Chalcolithic period in Palloures, Cyprus.

Researchers from the Department of Economics and the Institute of Public Administration – Olaf van Vliet and Lars van Doorn – have been awarded a grant of 430,000 euros from Instituut Gak to analyse the flexibilisation of the labour market and its implications for social policy.

Work has begun on an accommodation complex for international PhD candidates and postdocs at the Leiden Bio Science Park.

Electric noise can be useful for scientists but inconvenient for chip manufacturers. They do share a wish to predict the amount of noise. PhD student Sumit Tewari overturns a century-old law relating noise to current. He defends his thesis on March 27th.

Which roles did books have in prayer in the late Middle Ages? What did the interaction with these books by readers and users look like? And how can we see this reflected in the books that were handed down?

On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, students, instructors, staff and other guests gathered at the Faculty Club for an exciting event: a discussion entitled “The First 20 Years: Reconsidering European Union Enlargement into Central and Eastern Europe.” His Excellency Mr. René Miko, Ambassador of the Czech Republic…

Curators devote a lot of attention to their collections. How is Martijn Storms, curator of maps and atlases at Leiden University Libraries, managing to do this now he is working from home? And how is Silvia Vermetten digitising Eastern manuscripts from home?

During the summer, staff and students of the Faculty of Archaeology travel to all parts of the world, initiating or joining fieldwork projects. Read some of our students' stories here!

On Wednesday April 8, 2026, the Austria Centre Leiden and the Special Chair for Central European Studies hosted the Seventh Annual Lecture in Austrian Studies.

Lecture, China Seminar

Overtone Singing, written by ACPA alumnus Mark van Tongeren, deals with the hidden harmonies of the human voice.

Dr Peter Siegel, Associate Professor in Anthropology from Montclair State University, New York, has obtained a Fulbright Scholarship to participate in research and teaching in the Caribbean Research Group for four months. Dr Siegel will be a visiting fellow in the faculty from February to May 2012.

Moldavia is going through a governmental crisis. Antoaneta Dimitrova was asked to clarify the events on the Dutch radio programme ‘Bureau Buitenland’. She commented on the current political relations but also issued a warning: ‘Panic is rising, there is a real danger of conflict in the country.’

Jorrit Kelder, Senior Research Grant Adviser at Luris with close associations with Faculty of Archeology Classical and Mediterranean research, has been invited to become Guest Scholar in a major research programme at the Getty Research Institute, exploring the relations between the Greek / Roman world…

Erik de Maaker, Sybille Lammes, Anke Klerkx, and Michiel van Groesen received a 10k€ KIEM grant for 'Networking Heritage at Leiden University' to boost heritage research.

Charisma K. Lepcha (PI, Sikkim University), Pradyut Guha (co-PI, Sikkim University), Rajib Sutradhar (co-PI, Christ University Bangalore) and Erik de Maaker (Leiden University) have been awarded a two-year grant of USD 18.000 to conduct research on the impact of ‘green farming’ on the sensitive mountain…

For the bachelor's course Past and Future, Archaeology students visited Castellum Hoge Woerd (Utrecht), a modern interpretation of the Roman fort that stood on that exact spot. It features an archaeological museum, the remains of a Roman river ship, a theater, and a restaurant. Students were tasked…

On January 17th 2023, Caterina Ghini, Ambassador of Greece to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, visited the Faculty of Archaeology. Her Excellency reached out to Leiden University with the purpose to collaborate and engage with us.

Until September 2016, Hannah Plug was Research Assistant for the Consolidating Empire Research Project under the direction of Dr. Bleda Düring. Now, she has just begun her new appointment at Liverpool University, UK. Here she tells all about it.

Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at Leiden University, told CGTN Europe that the Dutch election outcome reflects growing support for pragmatic and pro-European politics. He highlights D66’s focus on education, climate policy and European cooperation as key to its strong performance.

Alwin Kloekhorst, working at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, has received a Vidi grant for his research on the break-up of the Indo-European language.

The Fourth Annual Leiden Austrian Studies Lecture “Was the Habsburg Empire an Empire?” was given by Professor John Connelly on Monday, March 20, 2023 at Leiden University’s Faculty Club.

On October 11, the Austria Centre Leiden teamed up with the Leiden Jewish Studies Association to welcome Dr. Lena Sadovski for a lunch time talk. Fifteen colleagues from across the university, including retirees and graduate students, attended Dr. Sadovski's fascinating lecture entitled “When religion…

The faculty has been investigating hundreds of ancient stone tombs in Jordan’s Black Desert.

On 6 September 2018 Jacqueline Vel of the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society organised a master class on ‘Access to Justice’ at the invitation of the Wira Wacana Christian University in Waingapu, Sumba, Indonesia.

Jorrit Rijpma was invited to teach at a number of summer schools this year. He lectured at the CLEER summer school on External Relations, the ICPMD summer school on migration and asylum and the Odysseus summer school.