What are the typical characteristics of teaching at research universities, and how is excellence defined and promoted? These are the key questions in the latest position paper published by LERU, the partnership of European research universities, including Leiden.

The 14 universities, brought together in the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), have expressed their support for the open letter on the climate that has already been signed by almost 1,300 staff members. The letter calls on the universities to pursue an ambitious climate agenda of…

Leiden University’s Executive Board (CvB) visited Leiden University College in The Hague on Friday 11 November during a working visit tour past the Institutes of the Faculty Governance and Global Affairs. Hester Bijl and Martijn Ridderbos were provided with an overview of the programme, the research,…

For the first time ever, a float from Leiden University is taking part in the Grand Parade during the Relief of Leiden or Leidens Ontzet. October 3 is one big party in Leiden, and the University is joining in big style to celebrate its 444th anniversary.

At 1 January 2019 NISIS will move from Leiden University to Utrecht University. Dutch research schools have to change host universities after a certain period and now it is time for NISIS to move.

RWTH Aachen University has a vacancy for a research assistant / PhD candidate in the DFG-FNR project “Lotharingien und das Papsttum”.

‘Universities are only the trustees of a complex intellectual heritage that they themselves did not create,’ said Stefan Collini, professor in Cambridge, at the opening of the academic year of Leiden University. He was addressing the question: Who does the university belong to?

Join us on March 18th 12.00 - 14.00 for an open discussion on Open Science within Academia in Motion at Leiden University

On Tuesday 3 October we will celebrate the Relief of Leiden, so all Leiden University premises will be closed that day. The University premises at our campus in The Hague will remain open (with the exception of Anna van Buerenplein/Leiden University College).

On Wednesday 3 October we will celebrate the Relief of Leiden, so all Leiden University premises will be closed that day. The University premises at our campus in The Hague will remain open (with the exception of Anna van Buerenplein/Leiden University College).

Complex research with a generous sprinkling of jargon: PhD defences can be difficult for non-experts to follow. In the compulsory new lay talk, PhD candidates begin by explaining their dissertation in words of one syllable. And it’s not just the PhD’s family and friends who appreciate this.

Medicines can work even if they have no active ingredient. The first international scientific conference on placebos will take place in Leiden from 2 to 4 April. Placebo researcher Andrea Evers, who is also chairing the conference, answers some pressing questions.

Using musical cues to learn a physical task significantly develops an important part of the brain, according to a new study co-authored by Leiden psychologist Rebecca Schaefer. The results are published in the journal Brain & Cognition.

How are Dutch universities working together in times of corona, and which solutions are they offering? On 15 May VSNU chairman Pieter Duisenberg presented the e-zine ‘Universities in times of corona’ (LINK) to Ingrid Van Engelshoven, Minister of Education, Culture and Science. The e-zine contains a…

Leiden University is the highest scoring comprehensive university in the biannual valorisation ranking produced by Elsevier and Science Works. They calculate which Dutch universities best exploit their scientific capital, in economic terms and in terms of societal impact. .

President Joko Widodo was received on 22 April in the Academy Building at the Rapenburg by Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker and Henri Lenferink, Mayor of Leiden. Jet Bussemaker, Minister of Education, Culture and Science, was also present.

At least twice a year the Skandapurāṇa team meets to discuss drafts of the forthcoming volume of the critical edition. in March 2016 a five-day meeting was held at Kyoto University, where we discussed several chapters that will be part of Volume IV.

In May 2021, Professor Bart Custers, Dr Mark Leiser and Dr Eduard Fosch Villaronga (all affiliated to eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies of Leiden University) will teach a course on Law and Technology at Haifa University, Israel.

This Summer Eduard Fosh Villaronga visited Shandong University. He writes about his stay at the second oldest university in China.

Charles University (Prague) is seeking highly qualified international post-doc researchers in the following domains: medieval literature, medieval Latin, and medieval philosophy. Deadline: 15 July 2021.

Leiden University is a member of the Una Europa European alliance. This partnership of 11 research-intensive universities is working to shape the university of the future.

On Thursday 23 May, Carlotta Rigotti, postdoctoral researcher at eLaw, gave a guest lecture on the regulation of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) in the European Union at Kyoto University.

A temporary position of Senior Researcher (SKO 1109) in Medieval Studies is available at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo. The position will be linked to the ERC Advanced Grant project 101018645 MINiTEXTS “Minuscule Texts: Marginalized Voices in Early Medieval…

New Ph.D. programme implemented in collaboration between the Institute of Greek and Latin Studies of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University and the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Application deadline is 30 April 2021, admission examinations take place on 14-16 June…

Prof. Robbert Dijkgraaf used experiments and models from Leiden University for his tv lecture on symmetry. The lecture was broadcast live on channel 1. He showed that our DNA only twists in one direction using a plastic DNA model and he used a Chladni plate to show the symmetry of sound.

10 October is the Day of Sustainability. What is the current status of sustainability at Leiden University? Things are moving ahead. Professor of Environmental Biology and Dean of the Faculty of Science, Geert de Snoo, outlines a new prospect: biodiversity.

‘Over the last few years we have focused much more on our environmental policy and have got better at telling the world what we do,’ says Jan van der Boon, Director of Administration at the Leiden University Administration and Central Services Department. This is how he explains Leiden’s impressive…

Over the past few weeks the world has experienced unprecedented disruption, disorder and over all change. Leiden University was no exception. Not only did all in-person teaching get cancelled and substituted by online classes, the cancellation of open days, information sessions, experience evenings…

Social Aspects of Space in the Configurational Architecture of Frankish Castles in the Holy Land, 1099-1291

Ten years, it is so hard to believe that it is already ten years ago that Leiden University College was officially opened on a sunny Wednesday in 2010 in The Hague. A day of achievement, joy, and dreams for the future. It seems so much shorter and yet so much has been developed and built, so many happy…

‘I already gave a talk about planets when I was five.’ With the theme of the 3 October celebrations being ‘Jong geleerd is oud gedaan’ (meaning something like, ‘You’re never too young to learn’), this year’s 3 October University was especially for children. Many parents came with their offspring to…

As a psychologist and pilot, Bert Busscher is interested in the phenomenon often termed as fear of flying. Busscher discovered that the heart rate of a person undergoing a therapeutic flight shows how much they still suffer from fear of flying. The post-flight heart rate can even predict whether the…

Three new initiatives will provide a more diverse view of Leiden’s academic history, literally and figuratively: a historical study on the background of students and scientists, a new book about the Academy Building, and two new sculptures of female scientists, Ewine van Dishoek, Professor of Molecular…

In 2016, the 23 members of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) generated a collective economic value of €99.8 billion in Gross Value Added and 1.3 million jobs. These and other figures, which appear in a just published report by LERU, demonstrate the impressive contribution that LERU…

As University historian, Pieter Slaman researches the University’s past, but he’s equally interested in its present. ‘It’s useful to be familiar with issues from the past. Not to be rooted in the past because some developments from history are things you definitely don’t want to repeat.’

ASLU 28 Michalis Karambinis (2015)

Helping the University to become more sustainable. This is the task of seven students and three members of staff at the Leiden University Green Office that officially opens its doors on 27 September. Three members talk about why and how they want to make their colleagues greener.

The United Nations’ fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. The Centre for Innovation at Leiden University feels the responsibility to tackle this need. Our mission is to drive innovation…

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga from Leiden University has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant of 1.5m euros enables talented early-career scholars to start their own pioneer project, lead a research team, and implement their best ideas at the frontiers of their…

Ten Leiden museums and heritage institutions have curated the online exhibition ‘Carel’s Universe’. They selected objects from their collections that symbolise retiring Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker and the research in Leiden. With direct references, playful associations and the odd nod and wink.

A former employee of Leiden University breached academic integrity. This is what the Academic Integrity Committee (CWI) of the University concludes in its advice to the Executive Board of the University on 11 November 2019. The Executive Board has taken various steps.

Leiden University is extremely concerned about the situation in Turkey and offers all possible support to its Turkish colleagues.

Universe Awareness is one of fifteen projects chosen by WISE for providing compelling and innovative solutions to today’s most pressing challenges in education.

The Netherlands is an open country and should remain so. This is what the rectores magnifici of the Dutch universities write in an opinion piece. Because academic training that does not provide enough of an international perspective lacks quality and relevance to the job market and society.

A delegation from various Serbian universities and government institutions will visit the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs from Monday 27 to Wednesday 29 May. They will discuss the development of an educational programme in public policymaking and analysis in Serbia. An interview with Serbian…

Ancient peoples might have harnessed the power of fire to modify their environment

Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences has done very well in the QS World University Rankings, being allocated a very impressive ninth position.

Healthy University Leiden works closely with Dutch Healthy Universities, universities of applied sciences and international partners.

The Executive Board of Leiden University has asked the University Council to advise on its proposed decision to reactivate the person counters/sensors in due course. The Council will now look at this carefully before the Board makes a final decision. The advice of the University’s participation body…

Leiden University and The Hague University of Applied Sciences are going to increase their teaching and research collaboration. They signed a collaboration agreement to this effect on 8 May.