To what extent is astronomy woven into our culture? Starting the 16th of October, you can visit the Shared Sky exhibition at the Old Observatory and search for the answer to that question. The exhibition explores the knowledge, colours and the beauty of the nightsky as seen by the eyes and expressed…

SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. In 2021, the Utrecht branch will settle in South-Holland. Pieter Dieleman is group leader at SRON. He tells why the upcoming move is such a good idea: ‘SRON is a connecting factor between Delft and Leiden.’

Mayke Kaag has been appointed Professor of the Anthropology of Politics and Governance in Africa at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (CADS) on behalf of the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL).

Is it ethical to freely redistribute photographs taken in colonial contexts, historically and today? Christoph Rippe, PhD-candidate Cultural Anthropology, suggests that people might not have been always fully aware of what happened to their photographs after they were taken. 'But nowadays, with the…

On Thursday 10 April 2025 Wahyu Widodo successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The University's childcare centre, de Kattekop, has been awarded the 2017 Regional Award by South Holland. In an independent survey, parents gave the centre an exceptional score of 9.4,.

The construction work on the South Cluster is going ahead throughout the summer. See the photo's and the video below!

The new mission of the Netherlands Institute in Morocco, NIMAR, is a broad one, in which the focus is on strengthening knowledge of each other's societies, languages and cultures. Leiden University will be responsible for research and education within the NIMAR.

Professor Kees Waaldijk presented the report on the LawsAndFamilies Database to Pearl Dykstra, member of the High Level Group of Scientific Advisors of the European Commission on 25 April. This comparative study shows that in European countries same-sex partners are increasingly gaining equal rights.…

The special of the Dutch History Programme Andere Tijden 'Missie Geslaagd?' (Mission accomplished?) tells the story of the last fathers of the Holy Spirit Congregation who live in Gennep. Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of Africa Peter Pels is one of the specialists in this episode. He explains…

This paper addresses the gap that explores how agencies might allocate their personnel so as to maximise performance with the personnel they have.

French title: Communication et violences dans le Guéra et le Moyen-Chari (Tchad) de 1940 à 2010. This research investigates the relationship between the introduction of new means of communication and violence experienced by the local populations in the Moyen-Chari and the Guéra regions in Chad from…

Prof. Julia Sloth-Nielsen has been awarded the Schim van der Loeff grant by the Leiden University Fund to conduct research on unaccompanied migrant children in Zambia.

On 24 May 2023, Professor Wannes VandenBussche of Ghent University delivered his inaugural lecture to accept the TPR rotating professorship in the Leiden Academy Building. The title of his inaugural lecture was: ‘De EU-dimensie van het burgerlijk bewijsrecht: een mozaïek van opportuniteiten en valkuilen’…

The project investigates epistemicity: how the knowledge of the speaker and hearer can be expressed in the grammar. This shows us how speakers organise their knowledge, and whether this is influenced by the language they speak.

Lecture, This Time for Africa! series

Scientists have long assumed Neanderthals simply lost the evolutionary race against humans. But their disappearance may be a bit more complex. In Discover Magazine, Gerrit Dusseldorp sheds light on this illusive question.

On 28 and 29 January 2020 the workshop ‘Law, Rights, and Governance in Africa. A look to the Future’ was held at Leiden Law School.

As of 1 September Jan-Bart Gewald has been appointed as Professor of Southern African History in the Leiden Institute for History, in conjunction with the African Studies Centre, Leiden.

Afro-American slaves in the 19th century did not always flee to the north of the United States, according to historical research. Most of the slaves who fled remained in the southern states and posed as free coloured people. This is the conclusion that Professor Damian Pargas from Leiden University…

SEECR-CONGO aims to strengthen the doctoral education ecosystem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to foster a new generation of highly skilled researchers who can contribute to academia and the wider labour market.

The United Nations (UN) made history in October 2000 when Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) was unanimously adopted.

On 30 June 2016, Eesa Fredericks is expected to defend his Ph.D.-thesis ‘Contractual Capacity in Private International Law’ in Leiden. Supervisors are prof. Sierd J. Schaafsma (Leiden) and prof. Jan Neels (Johannesburg).

In the fight for a liveable planet, we desperately need a fairer distribution of wealth and equal rights for all, argues anthropology professor Marja Spierenburg. ‘That will also generate broad-based support for sustainable development.’

The production of history is a process of power. This is particularly relevant in Africa, where during both the colonial and the post-colonial era history has been written by hegemonic regimes. This historiography has in turn (re-)produced structures of domination, social exclusion and division.…

Ineke Bussemaker studied Maths at Leiden University and now works as a banker in Tanzania. In an interview in alumni magazine Leidraad she brings those two worlds together and looks back on her time in Leiden.

Every January, students of the Minor Sustainable Development have the opportunity to put what they’ve learned over the last few months into practice in a choice of exciting and practical courses called Area Studies. This year, for the first time, there was a choice of four locations: The Netherlands,…

Leiden’s Faculty of Humanities is one of the broadest of its kind, offering courses in no fewer than 80 different languages and a very broad spectrum of academic disciplines.

Research into 25 years of lethal violence in the Netherlands and into language socialisation of deaf families in Africa will receive grants from the Leiden University Fund (LUF).

To be eligible for Assyriology (research) at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Hebrew and Aramaic Studies (research) at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Discover the admission requirements for the MSc in Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and Development at Leiden University, including bachelor qualifications, ECTS prerequisites, and English language criteria.

To be eligible for Foundations of Computing at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Statistics & Data Science at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for European and International Business Law at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Italian Literature and Culture at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for European and International Human Rights Law Law, you must meet the admission requirements as listed on this page.

To be eligible for International Children's Rights, you must meet the following admission requirements. Read more info about the admission requirements.

To be eligible for Life Science and Technology at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for Astronomy and Science Communication and Society at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Do you want to apply for the bachelor’s programme Arts, Media and Society at Leiden University? First, check the admission requirements.

To be eligible for this master's specialisation at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

To be eligible for German Literature and Culture at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.