Career development

PhD candidates at Leiden University or Leiden University Medical Center are invited to join PhD meetings organised throughout the year.

Your PhD studies culminate in a ceremony. The thesis defence is the most important part of the ceremony, and your supervisor or co-supervisor also delivers a eulogy about your work. Find out about the PhD ceremony and what is expected of you as a PhD candidate.

PhD candidates come in all shapes and sizes, from those with an appointment at the University to dual PhDs who have a job outside the University. Here we explain which PhD places we have at Leiden University, so you can quickly see which type suits you.

Apart from the PhD regulations, Leiden University also employs the PhD guidelines that lay down the minimal requirements for the supervision, training and available facilities for PhD candidates.

Are you a PhD candidate, and is there something you’d prefer to discuss with someone other than your thesis director or supervisor? The confidential counsellor for PhD candidates is here to help. You can speak to him/her in confidence and receive advice. If you experience symptoms of physical or mental…

Are you a PhD candidate, and is there something you’d prefer to discuss with someone other than your thesis director or supervisor? The confidential counsellor for PhD candidates is here to help. You can speak to him/her in confidence and receive advice. If you experience symptoms of physical or mental…

Words originally intended to indicate space, such as ‘out’, are also regularly used to indicate cause and effect. Why does this happen? And how does it work in other languages? PhD candidate Camil Staps decided to find out.

The outline agreement proposed by the new cabinet will have serious consequences for higher education and research. If the plans go through, there will be significant cutbacks in our sector. We will keep you up to date with developments on this page.

Organisation

Research

Research

All defences will take place in the Large Auditorium.

You have chosen to do a PhD at Leiden University. The PhD Regulations, which were established by the Doctoral Board, specify what you must do to be granted a place on a PhD programme.

Research

PhD defence

Communication, Research

Lydie Cabane and Seda Gürkan, respectively PhD-coordinator and Assistant Professor at ISGA, are starting a new programme to support and train ISGA PhD-candidates. They tell us more about the programme: ‘We aim to facilitate a successful completion of PhD trajectories.’

December marks the 15th anniversary of the Dual PhD Centre (DPC). Director Johannes Tromp and associate professor Mark Dechesne look back and ahead. Dechesne: ‘The DPC forms a 'community of knowledge' in which science and society are connected.’

Each year, Leiden Law School makes two Meijers PhD positions available to talented researchers. One position is open to participants in the Pre-PhD Programme (PPP) and one position is open to other candidates from within and outside Leiden University.

Study information | Graduate School

Research

The Associate Professor at the Institute of Tax Law and Economics is one of two PhD deans at Leiden Law School and started in this position on 1 October 2023.

Study information | Graduate School

On 1 January Irma Mosquera Valderrama succeeded Jean-Pierre van der Rest as PhD Dean, completing the changes to the team of PhD deans at Leiden Law School.

The Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities conducted a survey of its PhD candidates and their supervisors in spring 2023. What is going well? And what could be improved? The results are now known.

‘If it rains later, then I’ll take the car.’ In order to reason, we use sentences containing ‘if’ every single day. But how does that work exactly in the Dutch language? Alex Reuneker wrote his 628 page dissertation on the subject. Ceremony on 26 January.

If you are granted permission to defend your thesis at Leiden University, please take into account the rules concerning the PhD ceremony. Below you find an overview of the practical matters.

Welcome to the Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities. On this website you'll find a wide range of information you might need as a PhD candidate. If you have any further questions, please contact the Graduate School Office.

In recent weeks, all PhD students and supervisors have received an invitation for a PhD survey. Why was this survey launched? And what happens to the results? Director of the Graduate School Marian Klamer explains why it is worth setting aside 15 minutes to take part in the survey.

She studied biology in Leiden and never left. Now, as Professor of Immunobiology, Annemarie Meijer has taken on the role of the new confidential counsell for for PhD candidates. It's a role that suits her perfectly: she has extensive experience in the research world and has guided dozens of PhD candidates.…

On 21 June 2021 a meeting took place during which PhD candidates within the research theme 'Institutions for Conflict Resolution' at Leiden University presented the current state of their doctoral research.

Sinéad Mulcahy recently started the Europaeum Scholars Programme, a two-year policy and leadership course for a group of thirty talented and committed PhD candidates from universities across Europe. She is already enthusiastic – both about the programme and her fellow scholars. ‘I would like to bring…

As a PhD candidate, you invest in your professional and personal development by following an University education and training programme. The courses and trainings will help you to conduct your scientific research, write your dissertation, developing your career and gain self-insight.

Black-and-white photographs filled with solemn young men and distinguished professors line the walls of the Grand Auditorium. Young women are missing from the photos; women rarely obtained PhDs 50 years ago. And this article is about that group, the PhD candidates between 1966 and 1972, who were invited…

Leiden University has an active open science community. Open science means transparency in all phases of research by precisely documenting every step of the way and making this publicly available. ‘It’s time to be open,’ say psychologists Anna van ’t Veer and Zsuzsika Sjoerds. There is increasing awareness…

A number of our PhD candidates has done their defense in the first half year of 2021. Our institute is extremely proud of our young doctorates who have accomplished this task with their hard work. Congratulations on your achievement. We wish you a successful career and a bright live.

Personal development, Working effectively

On 5 May we celebrate freedom, a basic human right that should not be taken for granted. We asked international students and staff what it means to them.

At the beginning of this month, the PhD regulations and the guidelines for PhD tracks have been revised. The main revisions can be found below.

As of January 2024, the LACDR has a PhD Association (PAL), currently comprised of 9 members! PAL represents the interests of all LACDR PhDs (employed, contract, and external). We do this by 1) representing the interests and concerns of PhDs, 2) advocating the rights and welfare of PhDs, 3) communicating…

It is almost two and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine, but the conflict between the two countries has been going on for much longer. Central to it is the question of what it means to be Ukrainian. Guest researcher Viktoriia Ryhovanova teaches a course on the subject. Last academic year, the…

Research

This year we will welcome 7 new PhD candidates with a CSC scholarship. Some PhD’s have already arrived, others will come soon. An introduction program for all new Chinese PhD’s of the faculty will be organized by the faculty in collaboration with LACDR PhD office. The introduction program consists components…

After the summer break, the PhD training program is restarted and we are happy that most courses will be live again. Together with the lecturers, we are preparing the courses Basic programming in R, Basic programming in Python, Population Pharmacokinetic Modelling, Data management course and Introduction…

Recently, we have been welcomed our new CSC PhD candidates. Together with the faculty of Science and Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) we have introduced different aspects of living in The Netherlands, and we have done activities to get to know Leiden city, the University and our institutes. As part…

After one bachelor’s and two master's theses, Fenna IJtsma knew for sure: she wanted to do a PhD. Her thesis supervisor warned her about the high workload. In the 'Twijfeltraject' (PhD: to do or not to do) podcast, published by Mare, IJtsma explores with Mare editor Susan Wichgers whether a PhD track…