What is the significance of the history of slavery for our present-day society? A special exhibition in the inner courtyard of the Academy Building features eleven insightful portraits of students and staff, and their answer to this question. The aim of the exhibition’s initiators is to make the subject…

Cyber Security challenges are dominating the international agendas. Therefore, the Cyber Security Academy (CSA) enthusiastically and proudly announces that on Thursday 18th January a fourth group of 26 professionals from a variety of public and private organisations will start the executive Master’s…

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has had a clear impact on Leiden University. Students and staff are angry or scared, feel unsafe and are experiencing group pressure.

Will Belgian politician Didier Reynders become the new secretary-general of the Council of Europa? At the end of January he submitted his candidacy and he now only has one rival: the Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marija Burić.

How do colonialism and historical slavery continue to impact the university today? And what should happen next? Students and staff discussed these questions on 11 March.

On Thursday 3rd of March 2016 the 14th Norbert Schmelzer, organized annually by the CDA party, took place in the Hague. This year the lecture was given by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Executive Board and Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency will meet from 13 to 15 December, with Rick Lawson as Acting Chair.

Jan Pronk has been reappointed by the Executive Board of Leiden University as Executive Director of the Faculty of Archaeology. Pronk will begin his second term (2026-2029) on March 1st.

A lecturer winning a prize, an expert appearing in the media or a professor giving their inaugural speech: these are faces we often see. But we rarely see the staff who work behind the scenes to make their work possible. They are now featured in the photo exhibition ‘The forces behind the faces’.

A group of Chinese law students currently study this semester at the Leiden Law Faculty with a special focus on public international law. These top talents have been selected by the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs to be China’s future diplomats, if they successfully finish their semester in Leiden…

Information about the situation in Ukraine

No procession of professors, just a handful of people in the church and snowdrifts outside Leiden’s Pieterskerk: 8 February 2021 was no ordinary Dies Natalis. Carel Stolker transferred the rectorate to Hester Bijl, and Annetje Ottow became the new President of the Executive Board. With an honorary doctorate…

On Thursday the 30st of June and Friday the 1st of July Vicky Kosta and Vestert Borger participated in the workshop ‘Executive discretion, Public Interests and the Limits of Law’ at the University of Amsterdam. The workshop was organized by Joana Mendes in the context of the research project ‘Unveiling…

How has evolution shaped our curiosity? And how does that curiosity ensure that we now have the technological ability to discover whether we are alone in the universe? This was all covered during the celebration of Leiden University’s 449th Dies Natalis.

Professor Sarah de Rijcke will become the new Rector Magnificus on the Executive Board of Leiden University on 15 January 2026. She will succeed Professor Hester Bijl, who will become Rector Magnificus at Delft University of Technology.

The institute is funded by the Ministries of Education, Culture and Science and of Foreign Affairs and by Leiden University. To safeguard the institute’s independence and interests in Morocco, it is part of the Netherlands Embassy in Rabat under Moroccan law. The institute performs its tasks under the…

The fifth edition of the Owada Chair Symposium, that was held in Leiden on 14 and 15 October 2025, highlighted the law and politics of international criminal justice.

‘We have to have accountability.’ That was Roberta Metsola’ for her audience on Thursday evening. The President of the European Parliament had come to the Wijnhaven building to speak with students.

Maarten Feteris, the former president of the Court of Appeal and an alumnus of Leiden University, composed the piece ‘Intermezzo’ to mark the transfer of the rectorate during the Dies Natalis on 8 February 2021.

In March, Jan Pronk starts as the new Executive Director at the Faculty of Archaeology. We sat down with him for an interview on his background, his drive, and his take on archaeology.

Leiden University's 2017 annual report has now been published. This year for the first time the University has also published a separate sustainability report. Leiden University is the first university to produce a separate report on the progress of its sustainability policies.

Mariana Gkliati co-organised and chaired on 14 September a PhD Masterclass with the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnès Callamard.

Having served on the Executive Board for over nine years, the last five of which as Rector Magnificus, Hester Bijl will leave Leiden University at the start of next year. In a new step in her career, she will become Rector Magnificus on the Executive Board of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)…

The Executive Board has adopted a new Code of Conduct on Integrity for staff. This new code encompasses all the existing regulations within Leiden University, including in the field of research, behaviour towards students and purchasing. 'This Code of Conduct is a very clear statement,' commented Rector…

The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 made a big impression on Nicole Hoevertsz. I’m going to be there one day, the eight-year-old Nicole decided. Her passion for sport and her perseverance brought her further than the once so introvert Aruban had dared to hope. Her appointment…

LUGO and Campus The Hague employees will discuss sustainability in campus strategy. The university is discussing a new Development Strategy and Implementation Plan for Campus The Hague for the next decade (timeline: 2020-2030).

Our Principal Investigator Bart Barendregt is also UNESCO Chair in the Anthropology of Digital Diversity.

Leiden University’s Rector Magnificus, Professor Hester Bijl, has been reappointed for a second term by the Board of Governors.

We take it for granted that water comes out of the tap and electricity out of the socket. But that isn’t always the case. Last Tuesday began like any other day, with our board meeting in the morning. But things were soon to change.

Research goal: To support the design of technologies (counter-measures and communication measures) for the prevention, interdiction and mitigation of lone actor extremist events (LOEEs), which are hard to anticipate, yet can be highly damaging to local and national communities and therefore must be…

Cyber agent technology and intelligence agencies is a project that is commissioned by Tracks Inspector, a Dutch company that develops innovative software.

eLaw is a research institute of interdisciplinary scholars who explore issues at the intersection of law, technology and society.

This week, Leiden University bade farewell to Henri Lenferink, who is retiring after 20 years as mayor of Leiden.

Suzanne van der Pluijm will be appointed Executive Director and Member of the Board of the Faculty of Science with effect from 1 June 2022. She succeeds Ed van den Berg, who has held this position on an interim basis since 1 September 2021 .

The Executive Board of Leiden University has asked the University Council to advise on its proposed decision to reactivate the person counters/sensors in due course. The Council will now look at this carefully before the Board makes a final decision. The advice of the University’s participation body…

We have all been deeply affected by the events that took place in Rotterdam on Thursday evening. Our colleagues at Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University have lost a valued colleague and have been involved in a very serious incident, which will undoubtedly leave deep scars. The witnesses to this…

Vasiliki Kosta spoke at the conference ‘The role of civil society in the protection of the rule of law’ organised by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland as part of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which took place on 22 – 23 April.

The importance of science communication and cross-boundary collaboration, and the ‘mantra’ of diminishing social cohesion in society: these all came up at Leiden University’s 448th Dies Natalis. A panel discussion including Leiden’s mayor Lenferink, music and two honorary doctorates completed the special…

Het zal niemand ontgaan zijn dat de digitale dreigingen blijven toenemen. Uit monitoring door onze cybersecurity-experts blijkt dat er continu wordt geprobeerd om ook onze systemen binnen te dringen. Wat doen wij daartegen en hoe kan jij als medewerker bijdragen aan onze cyberveiligheid?

In 2021 many of our students and staff won fantastic prizes and were awarded important research grants. This is our traditional review of these successes as the end of one year marks the beginning of another.

Sonic Modernities situates Southeast Asian popular music in specific socio-historical settings, hoping that a focus on popular culture and history may shed light on how some people in a particular part of the world have been witnessing the emergence of all things modern.

Over time Dutch and Indonesian composers, performers and music scholars have inspired each other and they continue to do so. The presence of the Dutch in the Netherlands East-Indies and Indonesia, but also the existence of large diasporic communities in the Netherlands have contributed to a mutual exchange…

A delegation from Leiden University visited the Netherlands Institute Morocco (NIMAR) in Rabat at the end of February.

Audiovisual and Digital Ethnography is a state-of-the-art introduction to this dynamic and growing subject. The authors explain its fundamental aspects in a clear and systematic way.

Yisheng Development is to design the entrance area to the Leiden Bio Science Park. Leiden University and the municipality of Leiden selected this Amstelveen-based project developer on the basis of their sustainable design for a vibrant campus. The design provides a combination of residential, working…

Alumni who live and work in Brussels met on 18 February at the annual Leiden Alumni in Brussels Event. As well as celebrating Leiden University’s 450th anniversary, they also looked at the challenges Europe faces.

Care robots, medical treatments, deepfakes and self-driving cars all with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI). The BrAInpower exhibition at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave shows spectacular applications of AI and explains how it can make such huge leaps. Bas Haring, Professor of Public Understanding of Science,…

The university campus at the Leiden Bio Science Park is flourishing. A new book tells the stories behind this remarkable metamorphosis.

Decent work involves opportunities for work that delivers a fair income, care for occupational health and safety, freedom for people to organize and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. The Labour Law department at Leiden University conducts research and provides education on…