National holidays and compulsory closures
The University has national holidays and compulsory closures. National holidays are not deducted from your vacation hours, whereas compulsory closures are.
Import holidays and compulsory closures in Outlook
You can add the national holidays and compulsory closures for 2024 to your calendar by downloading this .ics file and opening it in Outlook.
National holidays
The following days are national holidays at the University. You do not have to work on national holidays, unless this is in the interest of the University. You have these days off, without having to use vacation hours:
- New Year's Day (1 January)
- Good Friday (18 April)
- Easter Sunday and Monday (20 and 21 April)
- King's Day (the day upon which King's Day is celebrated nationally, 26 April)
- Liberation Day (5 May)
- Ascension Day (29 May)
- Whit Sunday and Monday (8 and 9 June)
- Relief of Leiden (3 October)
- Christmas Day and Boxing Day (25 and 26 December)
October 3 is a holiday in Leiden. If 3 October falls on a Sunday, the holiday is celebrated on Monday 4 October.
Good Friday exchangeable
As of 2024, it is possible to exchange Good Friday for another religious, national, regional or local holiday or day of remembrance (for example; Keti Koti, Carnival or National Remembrance Day).
For more information, visit the leave page.
Compulsory closures
You have to take vacation on a compulsory closure day. The number of hours that you normally would have worked on this day are deducted from your vacation credit. These holiday hours are automatically deducted from your holiday entitlement at the start of the year. If the situation changes in the course of the year and the compulsory closure no longer applies to you or conversely does apply to you (e.g. due to a change in schedule or to the end date of your contract), the correction to your holiday entitlement will be automatically processed once again. The Executive Board may - after a consent of the trade unions in the Local Consultation - specify a maximum of seven days per year as compulsory closures.
It may happen that you do have to work on a compulsory closure day. In that case the day is considered a normal working day and is therefore not deducted from your vacation credit.
If you are sick during a compulsory closure, these days are still deducted as vacation hours. The days are only recredited if you are not able to take up days of leave for such reasons as being admitted to a hospital.
| Year | Days |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Friday 10 May Friday 4 October Friday 27 December Monday 30 December Tuesday 31 December |
| 2025 | Friday 30 May Wednesday 24 December Monday 29 December Tuesday 30 December Wednesday 31 December |
| 2026 |
Friday 2 January |
D&I Calendar
The calendar includes religious holidays and important dates related to diversity and inclusion. It serves as a tool to create awareness about these dates and their potential impact on work and study. The calendar can be useful for planning meetings, events, and other communications. A colour-coded distinction is made between religious holidays and other D&I dates. For religious holidays, the description of the agenda item includes information about possible dietary restrictions and restrictions on work.
The calendar does not give staff members or students the right to demand that certain activities do not take place on religious holidays, with the exception of official public holidays in the Netherlands.
The calendar can be downloaded as an iCalendar file by those who want to add these dates to their own Outlook, Google or Apple calendar.
D&I Calendar