Study information, Experience Day

If you’re considering the English Language and Culture bachelor’s programme and would like to experience what it’s like to study in Leiden University, introductory activities that include an Open Day, Experience Day and Student for a Day, will help you make up your mind.

Our information activities can help you make the right study choice. Throughout the year you can get to know Leiden University, our bachelor's programmes and student life in Leiden and The Hague in various ways. Join our events and experience it for yourself!

Do you want to know more about the International Studies Bachelor, and experience what it’s like to study in The Hague? Leiden University offers you a variety of introductory activities to help you with your choice of study:

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will stem from being a part of our lively and diverse student community, as well as from life in the beautiful city of Leiden.

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will stem from being a part of our lively and diverse student community, as well as from life in the beautiful city of Leiden.

Leiden University offers several services related to career orientation and job search and application skills.

As Board Secretary, Corry Donner aims to be a ‘spider in the web’; someone who keeps a watchful eye on and brings together all the different perspectives of the institute’s board. Now she's left her carefully woven web at the university and transfer her tasks to her successor. Last September, we talked…

Touring the campus, meeting current students and taking part in an interactive seminar in the Lipsius building. After 1,5 years of online events due to the corona pandemic, a live Student for a Day took place again on Friday 24 September.

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute is offering an internship in Cairo from January 2019 onwards. If you are interested please apply before 20 December, 2018. (See the details in Dutch only)

The PhD students at the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University include a composer, an artist and a baroque flautist. Henk Borgdorff, who studied the phenomenon of PhDs in the Arts, says, ‘Artistic research in all disciplines of the Arts is a booming business worldwide.’

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo is offering an internship from September 2019 onwards. If you are interested please apply before 15 July, 2019. (See the details in Dutch only)

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute is offering an internship in Cairo from March 2018 onwards. If you are interested please apply before February 15, 2018. (See the details in Dutch only)

With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our Galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.

PhD defence

Using the motto 'Exploring humanities through the life of objects' the Thingsthattalk platform gives a voice to historical objects that are usually kept behind closed doors. Objects from various Leiden collections are going to be made public and placed within a historical and user context.

The compulsory reading list is infamous among secondary school students, and for all the wrong reasons. This prompted the Faculty of Humanities and the Onderwijsnetwerk Zuid-Holland (South Holland Education Network) to launch the Alternative Reading List Award, in search of books that motivate young…

Not only the United States but also the Netherlands are faced with 'systemic problems' to do with racism and discrimination, according to Dutch Prime Minister Rutte during a press conference held on 3 June. The Prime Minister responded to the events taking place in the United States after the death…

Postdoc and linguist Evelyn Bosma receives the Keetje Hodshon Prize for her dissertation. For her research on the multilingualism of Frisian children, Bosma previously won the Klokhuis Science Prize and the Campus Fryslân Science Prize.

Adhesives are an incredibly important part of every day life. They help hold together everything from shoes and mobile phones to satellites in space. But we didn’t invent adhesives: Neanderthals did, to make handles for stone tools over 191,000 years ago. Leiden researchers now found that Neanderthals…

Het onderzoeksproject heeft als doel ouders te helpen hun kleuters gezonde eetgewoonten aan te leren door het bevorderen van sensitieve voeding tijdens de fase wanneer peuters kieskeurig met eten worden.

At one time, the railway from Kimberley to Kambove in Southern Africa symbolised prosperity and progress. Today, the exhausted mining towns along its route are marked by decay and pollution. Professor Jan-Bart Gewald has been awarded an NWO L grant to investigate the long-term global consequences.

On Friday April 6th, Leiden University organizes its biannual try-out day. We pay a visit to Physics and Astronomy, which saw their student numbers almost quadruple over the past decade.

Lecture

Choosing a study programme at a research university or university of applied sciences can be tricky. There are so many options! Where should you begin? We will guide you step by step through the study choice process, to the study programme that’s right for you.

Finding housing is your own responsibility therefore it is important to plan ahead. Find out how and when to start your search and read other important tips and advice.

University Lecturer Nadine Akkerman concluded her book tour for her book 'Invisible Agents' in England at the Hay Festival. At the festival, attended by almost four thousand people, Invisible Agents was one of the most discussed books and caught the attention of the national newspaper and The Times.

Everyone can contribute to a better climate. One thing you can do is to turn the heating down in your room and wear a warmer sweater! Leiden University is taking part in the Warm Sweater Day again this year. On 2 February the heating will be turned down to 16 degrees in as many University buildings…

That the new building of the Campus the Hague in the Wijnhaven is literally in the governmental heart of the Netherlands should not be a surprise. But who are our neighbors besides all the ministries and the municipality? Let’s take a little walk around the neighborhood.

Cells in our body are constantly performing small tasks, such as repairing wounds. They exert force by changing shape. But how do cells translate their shape into exerting a force in a specific direction? Experimental and theoretical Leiden physicists have now found a clue to answer this question. Cells’…

On Saturday 25 February, the Pieter de la Court Building opened its doors for many future students during the Bachelor Open Day. These potential social scientists could get a taste of the study programmes and the atmosphere of our Faculty during the presentation sessions, at the information market and…

Valedictory lecture

Exit life as a student, enter life as a lawyer. Fresh out of university in 2022, Rick Kuivenhoven started working at a law firm straight away. How is life as a recent graduate? And does it match his expectations?

During the Late Pleistocene, Europe was a cold and unforgiving place to live. Even so, groups of early modern humans roamed around, just like their Neanderthal counterparts. It is unclear what kind of dwellings these people inhabited to shelter them against the elements, especially in regions without…

Lecture

The Tappino Area Archaeological Project aims to map and analyze ancient settlement patterns and dynamics in a small valley in Central-Southern Italy, in modern Molise (province of Campobasso). The first sites in the area date to the Bronze Age. In the Iron Age to Classical period, it was reportedly…

You are legally required to have health insurance to cover any medical costs you may incur during your stay. You must take out a health insurance policy before you arrive. There are various types of health insurance:

The Aesernia Colonial Landscape project investigates ancient settlement patterns and dynamics around modern Isernia in Molise (Italy), the Latin colony of Aesernia (founded 263 BC). It consists of intensive systematic field survey in the territory of the colony, combined with remote sensing and geoprospection…

Leiden University's interdisciplinary research programme SAILS funds young interdisciplinary scientists working at the intersection of AI and other fields. How do these researchers experience the work?

Investigating the emergence of complex societies in Chalcolithic Cyprus.

Tracking early human behaviour through plant processing and -exploitation.

People are less willing to give up an interest when in a negotiation situation than when they can do it of their own free will, as Leiden University psychologist Eric van Dijk discovered. Knowledge of this kind can be used by policy makers, for instance, to motivate people to adopt certain desirable…

‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ said skating coach Jac Orie to Leiden data scientist Arno Knobbe. And he did. Knobbe and his colleagues now assist athletes in all kinds of ways with the help of data mining.

Neural networks have a wide range of applications. In Leiden, psychologists use them to build robot brains, whereas archaeologists use them to hunt for prehistoric graves.

Within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW), D&I translates as the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and identities among both students and staff.

The SBB Internship is a great Opportunity for both Students and Organisations: Almost all SBB students look back upon their internship with positive feelings, since it is a valuable experience.

Intelligent machines are going to make ethical decisions too. Should a self-driving car be allowed to slam into pedestrians to save its passengers from a head-on collision? Should a negotiation app be able to detect stress in your opponent’s voice? And who makes these decisions: the user, the system’s…