In Europe, the Netherlands is in middle position when it comes to the placement of children in care. The consequences of such a placement in care are often disastrous, says Mariëlle Bruning.

In the renovation of the P.J. Veth Building, much attention has been devoted to the environment and the sustainable (re)use of materials. You can now separate waste easier, fill your own water bottle at the Join the Pipe tap point and pick up a free book at the giveaway library. All this is possible…

A unique app that connects the city of Leiden with similar spots on the other side of the world, in Indonesia. This is what the Leiden tour app 'Envisioning Indonesia' offers. Leiden alderman Paul Dirkse will launch the app on 19 June with the first public walking tour. Join and see Leiden from a different…

We have followed the UK referendum of Thursday, 23 June 2016, with great interest and indeed concern.

A national survey conducted by Dutch newspapers Dagblad van het Noorden, Turbantia, Brabants Dagblad and the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions (FNV) shows that staff working in disability and mental health care often face violence in the workplace. In the three northern provinces of the Netherlands,…

As of 1 November, Jan Vonk has been appointed full professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute (MI). The institute is delighted with Jan’s appointment, as is he. ‘At the MI we combine the abstract with the concrete like no other.’

How many of our laws in the Netherlands are actually determined by the European Union? In many areas, the influence of the EU has increased. But 80 per cent – a figure referred to in 1989 by then European Commission President Jacques Delors – is a very wide estimate. Research from around 15 years ago…

Marc Broekema from the Department of Business Studies has received a grant from the Netherlands Institute of Registered Valuators (NiRV) to conduct research into how the value of a business is assessed in legal proceedings.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) want to use private DNA databases in an effort to solve deadlocked murder cases. Bart Custers, Professor of Law & Data Science at eLaw, Center for Law and Digital Technologies, expects that this is permissible from…

Ten underage boys are due to appear before a juvenile court. They are accused of luring and attacking nine men whom they believed were paedophiles. Last October, one attack cost a 73-year-old former teacher from Arnhem his life.

The Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion (LUCSoR) and the Beheerstichting Theologische Fondsen hand out two thesis prizes each year, one for the best bachelor thesis and one for the best master thesis.

It seems that the Dutch Tax Offices’ Benefit Fraud Scandal has still not come to an end. New skeletons keep falling out of closets which has resulted in a parliamentary inquiry. But is such an inquiry the proper instrument to make sure that no stone is left unturned?

In the summer there are three big introduction weeks for new students – EL CID, HOP and OWL – but students also begin their studies in Leiden or The Hague halfway through the year too. International students, for instance, who are coming for on an exchange for a few months. They got to know the University…

Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, in conversation with the NOS, warns to remain alert despite the reduced threat level for terrorism.

The headline of the Financial Times on 5 May – 'Northern Ireland tensions threaten to derail Brexit long-term EU-UK deal' – was greeted as a blast from the past. This blast from the past led to the EU requesting to set up an office in Northern Ireland. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor at Leiden University…

Tahir Abbas, Professor of Radicalisation Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, organised a book launch for his new book: 'Ruminations: Framing a sense of self and coming to terms with the other'. The book launch took place on Thursday 15 December at Campus The Hague.

Now that a Brexit agreement has been reached, envy is rearing its ugly head among Swiss politicians. This envy is not only rooted in reluctance towards the European Court of Justice or having to accept EU rules. It also comes from the fact that for some time now many Swiss believe that the current bilateral…

A signal that is present both in the centre of our Milky Way and in distant places in the universe could reveal the origin of dark matter. This is what Leiden physicist Alexey Boyarsky concludes in an article in Physical Review Letters.

An international team of astronomers, including Leiden's Maciej Bilicki, has discovered an enormous supercluster of galaxies. The supercluster had previously been overlooked because it was obscured by our own Milky Way. The researchers are publishing their findings in the Monthly Notices of the Royal…

In their quest for materials that conduct electricity without resistance at moderate temperatures, scientists usually work on their chemical make-up. Now Leiden physicists have come up with a radically new approach: pinching holes in a periodic pattern. Publication in SciPost.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Nathaniel Martin a Proof of Concept (PoC) grant. With it, his group aims to make a dangerous but potent antibiotic less toxic. He receives €150.000.

Many students who graduated during the pandemic were unable to celebrate their graduation in style. To make up for this, they were given the chance to sign their name in the Sweat Room on Friday 26 May.

Emergency services and governments were caught by surprise on Monday 24 June by the nationwide breakdown of the emergency phone number 112. The breakdown raises the following question: ‘Could this not have been prevented’?

Four Leiden researchers will be gaining experience at prominent international research research institutes funded by a Rubicon subsidy from NWO. One international researcher will be coming to Leiden.

Scientists are regularly confronted with questions of integrity. A new film teaches students how to handle this issue.

Artist and painter Marlene Dumas will give the Huizinga Lecture in Pieterskerk on Friday 6 December. In an interview with Elsevier Weekblad, she talks about the preparations, the inspiration that she derives from Pieterskerk and the story that she wants to tell during the lecture.

The new CML minor Sustainable Development started on Monday 7 September 2009 with an official opening by the Vice-Rector Prof. Rietje van Dam.

If you're in Leiden this week, you can't miss the large groups of international students exploring the city. The Orientation Week Leiden (OWL) - the twice-yearly introduction week for international students - started on Tuesday 24 January, this time with more than 400 new students. ‘Every second building…

Will Leiden be the first city to have wall poems in sign language? It will, if sign language researcher Victoria Nyst has her way. She recently started a crowdfunding campaign together with the Leiden Language Museum and the TEGEN-BEELD Foundation.

Leiden or The Hague? Dutch or English? These two questions decide which introduction week new Leiden University students should choose: EL CID, HOP or OWL.

Knots come in all shapes and sizes: mariners and scouts can vouch for this. Sjabbo Schaveling will obtain his PhD on 1 September for a mathematical method to distinguish between all these knots. ‘I flatten them to a pretzel.’

On the evening of 11 September 2017, the first five-yearly anniversary of the master’s programme Child Law (Jeugdrecht) was celebrated.

Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker will retire on 8 February. If there’s one theme running through his career, it’s the links between the University and society. In this series of pre-retirement discussions, Stolker will talk one last time to people from within and without the University. In this first…

Do young people trust the law? That is what HC Law students are trying to find out. Regular guest speaker and social worker Carlito Jones invited the students to the Bezuidenhout-West neighbourhood centre in The Hague to talk to youth workers and neighbourhood police officers: what do they run into…

Siemens recently took over the Leiden software company Culgi, founded by professor and inventor J.G.E.M. (Hans) Fraaije. We spoke to him about the algorithm that made him successful, the role of a university in our society and his ambitions at Siemens. ‘I was looking for Siemens, and they were looking…

On the Things That Talk platform, students publish stories about objects from museums from the many collections of the university library and the city. An interview with Fresco Sam-Sin, its creator. Sam-Sin: ‘Things That Talk is a way to talk to each other about the structure of our education and about…

Dr Amany Soliman, our postdoctoral fellow for the ERC project “Rethinking Disability” (led by professor Monika Baar of Leiden University), will present a lecture coming Thursday.

As part of the ongoing cooperation programme between LEAD at Leiden University and the National University of Singapore since 1999, the Singapore Institute of Biology (SIBiol) had requested the LEAD Programme to participate in the Commemoration of ‘Fifty Years of SIBIOL’ in Singapore in 2004, and as…

Beatriz Pañeda Murcia, from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, will be present at our Faculty as a guest PhD researcher over the coming months.

The elections for the Leiden University Student Council and Faculty Councils are coming up, starting on the 17th of May!

On Tuesday 15 September 2015, Bart de Smit has been appointed as professor of Algebra and Number Theory at the Mathematical Institute of Leiden University.

During the Second World War, on 26 November 1940, professor Cleveringa of Leiden University gave a speech to protest against the dismissal of two Jewish colleagues. Every year in November, to commemorate his brave speech, Cleveringa Lectures are read by (former) Leiden academics in cities throughout…

On 27 November 2019, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen) organized a symposium on the plastic pollution crisis.

Siemens recently took over the Leiden software company Culgi, founded by professor and inventor J.G.E.M. (Hans) Fraaije. We spoke to him about the algorithm that made him successful, the role of a university in our society and his ambitions at Siemens. ‘I was looking for Siemens, and they were looking…

In the coming five years, Professor Corinne Hofman and her group will be conducting research at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV-KNAW), located on the Leiden campus. Her research into the deep history and indigenous heritage of the Caribbean fits well with…

Important note: upon careful consideration, we have decided to resume our Dutch language courses.

With the opening on 19 January 2017 of the Service Center International Staff (SCIS), foreign employees can get much more support than before. If you have any questions, feel free to visit the Service Center in the Administration building at Rapenburg.

On 28 September, the Medieval Murder Maps website will be shared publicly for the first time. The makers have used fourteenth-century coroners' rolls to map the homicides in three medieval towns: London, York, and Oxford. These digital maps are interactive and come with podcasts of interesting cases,…

Do you already know what comes next after your PhD? Are you wondering how to accomplish the transition from academia to the labour market? Join our PhD Career Event!

As from 1 February 2017 the shuttle service of the Entrepreneur Society Bio Science Park stops. The main reason of this decision is the intensification of public transport at Leiden Bio Science Park since 11 December 2016.