For the fifth year in succession, on the foundation day of the university, Leiden professors taught a lesson at primary schools as part of the ‘Meet the Professor’ programme.

At the FSW New Year’s reception 2020, the Faculty honoured prize winners Claire Vergerio, Shirley van der Maarel and Camila Espinoza Chaparro raised a glass to a new year with energetic education and research in an open and trust-based academic culture together with Dean Paul Wouters and his FGGA counterpart…

From BBC film shootings to a video of snowy Leiden and from bikes in the canal to our birthday, the Dies Natalis. This was our year in 12 Facebook posts!

The opening of the new academic year highlighted students' and lecturers' personal motivators. Incoming students were encouraged to be bold, forge their own paths and grow by trial and error.

Scott Waitukaitus has been nominated by LION to be Discoverer of the Year 2017. Cast your vote now!

For their honours internship, second year students of the Honours College 'Governance & Global Affairs' created the serious game Fallen Angels. In the game you take on the role of NATO, and have to deal with a crisis. Last month, a new generation of Honours students had the opportunity to be the first…

The Leiden Law Blog is celebrating its first anniversary. The blog attracts many visitors and scores well in Google. Tips for bloggers: link to previous blogs, post them on social media and respond to comments.

On Tuesday 10 January, the Meijers Lecture was held followed by the New Year’s reception in the restaurant of the Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw. Dean Joanne van der Leun opened the reception with a New Year’s speech. The following is a short overview of the event.

On 15 May 2025, a roundtable '80 Years of Peace in Europe?' was convened with students and staff at Leiden University to reflect on the anniversary of the end of World War II.

The Faculty of Science grants two C.J. Kok awards each year: the C.J. Kok Public Award, also known as the award for the ‘Discoverer of the Year’, and the C.J. Kok Jury Award, the award for the best PhD thesis from the past year.

What went on in 2016 at our University? What are we proud of? You can view the answers in our new photo brochure. Our new brochure 'About us' is available as well, with the most recent facts and figures. Both brochures are available in English.

Leiden University celebrates its 444th anniversary in 2019, and a special age requires a special logo. The logo for the celebration was designed by Clara Lezla, a student at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague.

After a turbulent Covid year, the well-being of our students and staff has the highest priority. How can we prevent physical and mental health problems? This was the key question at the Opening of the Academic Year in Pieterskerk in Leiden on 6 September.

Besides the project Conference and Winter School, the Food Citizens? research has profiled in numerous societal and interdisciplinary venues, online and offline, over the last year. Here is a brief summary with linked online resources.

The bachelor education programmes of Physics and Astronomy in Leiden combined have the highest percentage female first year students in The Netherlands, according to numbers published by the Dutch Journal of Physics.

Not one but two openings: the minister who defended her plans and many who emphasised the importance of standing together with the arts and social sciences: the opening of academic year 2019-2020 in Leiden was not without event.

Suzan Verberne is nominated by the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) to be granted the C.J. Kok Public Award, also known as the award for the ‘Discoverer of the Year’.

150 new Biology students have arrived in Leiden. This is more than ever and we seem to settle among the big three Universities for Biology in the Netherlands.

Which brilliant scientist will be our Discoverer of the year 2018? Will it be a physicist, biologist, drug discoverer or an astronomer? Or an environmental scientist, a mathematician, chemist or computer scientist? As of now, you can cast your vote.

In mid-March 2020, the global coronavirus outbreak changed everything in the Netherlands. Staying at home as much as possible and the 1.5 metre rule became the standard. One year on, we reflect on the past year with four Leiden Law School ‘insiders’. What kind of year did they have? And what are their…

EL CID has started! This is the week when new students have the chance to get to know the city and student life. Some of the mentors and first-years introduce themselves.

This year, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy celebrates its 15th anniversary! In our infographic below, we summarize 15 years in numbers.

On Tuesday 11 January 2022, the new year at the faculty was ushered in with an online event. Dean Joanne van der Leun toasted the new year and of course the annual Meijers prizes and thesis awarded were presented.

From a powerful documentary to a heartwarming classic: four Leiden alumni have chosen their favourite films and will introduce them at Leiden International Film Festival.

In 1960, 17 countries on the African continent became independent. Sixty years later, the Africanists from Leiden University are reflecting on what independence has meant for Africa.

Can the academic year be structured in such a way to give students, lecturers and researchers a bit more breathing space? To find out, Leiden University is taking part in ‘smarter academic year’ pilots.

The Leiden Asia Year is almost here. Asia will be the key theme for the University and the city throughout 2017. If staff and students have any ideas about how to make the programme even better, we'd like to hear from you!

25 years ago the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University was founded. In the academic year of 2022-2023 several lustrum activities will be organised to celebrate this happy occasion. The year was kicked off with a vibrant party on September 8, inviting staff, students, and alumni.

This year marks a special occasion because it was just ten years ago that the Georgian language was taught for the first time at Leiden University. It is even more exciting that its first professor, Ramaz Kurdadze, will return to Leiden this year to teach students interested in the language. Kurdadze…

Environmental scientist Alexander van Oudenhoven has been chosen as Discoverer of the year of the Faculty of Science. Vice Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl announced this during the faculty’s New Year’s Reception on 10 January. Biologist Changsheng Wu won the prize for best dissertation of 2016. Computer…

Last Friday, we celebrated ten years of the master’s specialisation in Labour Law at Leiden Law School!

How did Dutch sound 1000 years ago? This is a question that linguist Peter-Alexander Kerkhof has been pondering for some time already. He recently managed to reconstruct this Old Dutch.

The Faculty’s traditional New Year’s reception, like everything else these days, was transformed into an online event this year. Dean Paul Wouters as the host led us through the programme filled with the Casimir Teaching Award, the Pieter de la Court Medals, the Master’s Thesis Prizes, and a short lecture…

With a large majority of votes, drug researcher Alireza Mashaghi Tabari was chosen Discoverer of the Year 2017 of the Faculty of Science. This was announced by Rector Carel Stolker during the faculty’s New Year's reception on 9 January. Computer scientist Kristian Rietveld became Teacher of the Year…

Happy students and proud families, friends and lecturers; on 13 July the first fifteen refugee students graduated from the Preparatory Year for teaching in Leiden. They started a programme in September at a Dutch university of applied sciences or an academic university. 'This is just the start!'

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy - quantified! In our infographic below, we summarize the past 19 years in numbers.

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy - quantified! In our infographic below, we summarize the past 20 years in numbers.

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy - quantified! In our infographic below, we summarize the past 17 years in numbers.

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy - quantified! In our infographic below, we summarize the past 18 years in numbers.

After a year of war against Ukraine, professors André Gerrits, Antoaneta Dimitrova and Frans Osinga look back at Russian aggression and Western unity and ahead to the new offensive.

Lifelike gods, provisional professors and the city militia with weapons a clanking. Leiden put on a colourful procession and drummed up hundreds of citizens to celebrate the foundation of the first university of the Republic of the Netherlands on 8 February 1575. 'It wasn't a party just for the sake…

The book ‘Forty years of Leiden Environmental Science’ is available in digital format (PDF). It relates to the history of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML).

In this article, Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn and Edwin Bakker provide a big picture reflection on two decades after 9/11 in Western Europe.

On the 4th of March 2018, The Belgian Embassy and Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo successfuly opened the photo exhibition of "150 Years of Belgian Royal Visits to Egypt". The exhibition will stay on view till the 27th of April at our NVIC main hall.

2023 was another year full of highlights and special moments for the faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. Find out what the year was like in this year overview: we take you through the most important moments and news items month of each month.

On Saturday 19 November 2016 the students (9 – 12 years old) and several parents of the Transvaal University visited the Leiden University College (LUC) The Hague. The aim of the visit was to get acquainted with several scientific issues in an interactive session.

On September 9th 2009, the study Life Science and Technology (LS&T) celebrates its 10th anniversary. In 1999, a group of enthusiastic pioneers within the Technical University Delft (TUD) and Leiden University (LU) founded a novel study based on the biotechnological expertise of research institutes within…