This morning there was a brief disruption with our Selfservice system, this issue has since been resolved.

As of today, several educational films, lectures and other faculty-related issues can be easily viewed our own Youtube channel! A link to our channel has been placed on our homepage.

A freely accessible online street map of late medieval and early modern northern Europe (1350-1650) has been published by the Viabundus project.

The winning picture by Sander Blok in the annual Physics Image Award has made it to Leidsch Dagblad. The runner-up image by Jelmer Wagenaar has been selected as Beeld van de Week in De Volkskrant.

The deadline for the conference "The Fantastic and the Supernatural in the Medieval Germanic Traditions" has been extended to June 30.

You are invited to sign in for the Tabula Gratulatoria for a volume that has been composed for the occasion of Prof. Dr Marc Boone’s retirement.

All published texts from the Collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute have now been made available online, including images, translations and metadata. See Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS).

The newspaper Leidsch Dagblad publishes an interview with Ineke van der Ham. It discusses the nationwide public experiment on navigation and the navigation training study that has just been launched.

A preliminary programme of ICEHL-21 has now been made available. With over 100 papers on English historical linguistics and 4 amazing keynotes, this edition of ICEHL promises to be an interesting event!

The medieval manuscripts collection of the Athenaeumbibliotheek Deventer, which consists of around 130 manuscripts and 20 fragments, has now completely been digitized.

The deadline for the earlier announced Moving Humanities conference has been extended to August 12. See the original news message for the call for papers.

There was a brief disruption with our HRM system; this issue has been resolved.

There has been a brief disruption when registering in MyStudyMap..

The court has dismissed Ratko Mladić’s appeal and upheld his life sentence for genocide and war crimes. The verdict is one of Yugoslavia tribunal’s last. Mission accomplished?

The people who lived in Saqqara, City of the Dead in Egypt, died thousands of years ago, but they are not all that different from us. This is what a study by the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, The Netherlands concludes. If you wanted to prove that you had good taste in ancient Egypt then…

Yusra Abdullahi, Maha Ali and Felipe Colla de Amorim recently joined the Institute for History as PhD candidates. Together they work an an integrated, collective project. Learn more about them below!

They dreamed of Brussels, worked hard and finally succeeded: working for Europe. The list of Leiden University alumni in Brussels is long. A few days before the European elections, Julia Gencheva and Vincent Miča talk about how they ended up in Brussels and what their jobs entail.

World Heritage status comes at a cost to the local population’s human rights. PhD Candidate Sophie Starrenburg explains the drawbacks of poetic terms such as ‘the cultural heritage of mankind’.

The university may seem a bit subdued in the run-up to the Dutch elections on 29 October. The media has barely mentioned education as an election issue, but behind the scenes the university is lobbying hard, says acting President of the Executive Board, Timo Kos. ‘We’re fighting for the future of our…

The Leiden Papyrological Institute celebrated its eightieth birthday on Monday 19 January. Its collection of papyri – including paper, potsherds, pieces of wood and even lead – covers the period from 300 B.C. until after 800 A.D. and is entirely of Egyptian origin. The institute’s anniversary is being…

10 October is the Day of Sustainability. What is the current status of sustainability at Leiden University? Things are moving ahead. Professor of Environmental Biology and Dean of the Faculty of Science, Geert de Snoo, outlines a new prospect: biodiversity.

Timo Kos has been Vice President of Leiden University’s Executive Board since 1 March. Who is he and how have his first weeks been? ‘Higher education is under threat; we’re under fire.’

‘There is often a strong emphasis on the differences with Asia when actually there are so many similarities on all sorts of levels. Parents in Asia deliberate just as much about which school they should send their child to,’ says Frank Pieke, Professor of Modern China Studies. The opening conference…

Fake news about ‘patient zero’ and hyperbolic headlines warning about the ‘yellow peril.’ Leiden researchers have spotted fake news galore about coronavirus as well as racial stereotypes about the Chinese. How harmful is this?

Leiden Asia Centre researcher Anoma van der Veere argues that the Japanese government has failed to respond properly to Covid-19. There were difficulties with implementing government measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus – in some cases those measures were not even taken seriously. How…

Edith Schippers, Minister of Health, will be investing six million euros over the coming four years to boost research on new antibiotics. The programme will be set up by several different parties, including the Leiden Centre for Antimicrobial Research.

The Dick Stufkens Prize 2019 for the best PhD thesis of the Holland Research School of Molecular Chemistry (HRSMC) will be awarded to Thom Hersbach. In his thesis, Hersbach presents a thorough analysis of cathodic corrosion. His comprehensive research, on which he graduated with the distinction cum…

When internist Christian Blank made his very first discovery, his field of immunotherapy was the underdog of cancer research. Now, over 20 years later, Blank has been appointed Professor By Special Appointment of Internal Medicine for his clinical research into immunotherapy and will give his inaugural…

A cannon, a sabre, guns: these Sri Lankan objects had been in the Rijksmuseum for centuries. In early December, they were returned to Sri Lanka. Associate Professor of Colonial History Alicia Schrikker led the research that formed the basis for the restitution and published a volume on the findings…

Hak, lawyer, international imagery law lecturer, and adjunct associate professor, talks about his PhD research on the use of images in international criminal prosecutions. He was a public prosecutor in Canada for over 30 years and dealt primarily with the prosecution of homicides and other major cri…

The genetic code of the new coronavirus has been found: it is closely related to the SARS virus from 2003. Professor of Molecular Virology, Eric Snijder, has been researching coronaviruses for years. We asked him a few questions about the outbreak. ‘It’s still unclear whether this new virus is more…

The infection rate is rising again in the Netherlands, which means it may also be rising among Leiden University’s students and staff. How is the University responding? And what dilemmas is it facing? We spoke to our Rector Magnificus, Chief Security Officer and two other administrators.

On Friday 25 November 2016 the daughter of Professor Cleveringa, Mrs Ten Kate-Cleveringa, presented Leiden Law School with a magnificent bronze bust sculpture of her father.

Work started today on the Kolffpad student complex, with 289 flats for students from Leiden University. Stichtnig DUWO will own the building and the University owns the site at the Bio Science Park. The building should be complete by mid-2023.

Prof.dr. Annelou van Gijn has obtained a Marie Curie subsidy for research on wetland activity patterns in Mesolithic Northwest Europe. This funding has been used to employ the researcher dr. Aimée Little. The project will commence in November 2011.

The legal relationship between Switzerland and the EU dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, when Switzerland concluded its first agreements with the then European Communities. Since then, numerous other agreements have been concluded. In view of this long history of development, it is not surprising that…

The Faculty of Humanities has made a festive start to the academic year. On 7 September, staff members were able to meet each other at a drinks party in the Hortus botanicus.

On 13 February, Professor Matthias Haentjens spoke at the conference “Proportionality in European Banking Regulation” at the Bank of Greece. This conference was organized by the Greek central bank, in cooperation with the University of Piraeus and the European Banking Institute (EBI).

Kohei Suzuki receives Kenneth J. Meier Award from the Midwest Political Science Association

Research from Dutch news organisation NOS shows that gambling companies, including Holland Casino and the Dutch Lottery, have more influence on the creation of new rules on gambling adverts than addiction experts.

Martijn Ridderbos has been reappointed vice-chairman of the Executive Board of Leiden University by the Board of Governors.

The winner of this year’s Iris Medal for Excellent Science Communication is Professor of Science Communication Ionica Smeets.

On 21 May 2025, the chief negotiators of Switzerland and the EU Brevier initialled a package of agreements intended to strengthen their legal ties that have developed since the 1950s

Prevention measures against corona are strictly enforced on board the train. In the aviation industry, however, it seems as if the rules that still apply on the train no longer apply to the aviation industry. Does the aviation industry have too much power?

Dr. Mei Wang, chair of ‘Leiden University - European Center for Chinese Medicine and natural compounds’ has been awarded the ‘Qihuang prize’. The prize is awarded by the Chinese Medicine Society in recognition of her significant contribution to Chinese medicine outside China and to further stimulate…

Lodewijk Govaerts has been appointed by Ingrid van Engelshoven, caretaker Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), as a member of the Board of Governors of Leiden University.

Een 24-jarige man uit Leuven werd vorige week veroordeeld voor verkrachting, maar kreeg geen straf. Hoogleraar straf- en strafprocesrecht Jeroen ten Voorde gaf tegenover NOS een verklaring voor de onrust naar aanleiding van de uitspraak van de rechter.

In just over a decade, Uber has revolutionised how we move around our cities. The ride-hailing app was a game-changer: you just tapped your phone and a cab would find you. You even paid through the app. However, some of the Uber’s more controversial practices have triggered the interest of law enforcement,…

The International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) has always been proud of its network, and most notably its alumni. These unprecedented Corona times mean that the students have not had the same opportunities as in past years to meet and engage in personal relationships with that alumni-base,…

For many teachers, they are a lifesaver: the people at the Science Teacher Support Desk. When a teacher has technical problems, they come to the rescue immediately. Veerle Warnders is one of them and she tells us what is so great about her job.