It is a common technique in global optimization with expensive black-box functions to learn a surrogate-model of the response function from past evaluations and use it to decide on the location of future evaluations.

Given the teacher shortage, secondary schools could use an extra pair of hands. Alfrink College in Zoetermeer is glad to have students from the university helping out in class. ‘We hope students will see how great it is to work in teaching.’

Eleven lecturers from Leiden University have been awarded Comenius grants that will allow them to work with their teams on an innovation project within their own teaching. They have been awarded three grants of 100,000 euros within the Senior Fellows programme and four grants of 50,000 euros within…

In this project we study the properties of statistical- and rule-learning mechanisms in relation to the acquisition and evolution of language. We ask to what extent these mechanisms are unique to humans - or to human language - by comparing the acquisition of vocal structure in two species: humans (infants)…

During the opening of the Faculty year on 5 September 2023, Barend Barentsen, Professor of Labour Law, and Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, were presented with the JSVO Teaching Awards 22-23.

How do young zebra finches learn to sing? A research team led by researcher Katharina Riebel has developed a ‘RoboFinch’ to study just that. She and colleagues in the 'Seeing voices' research consortium have spent the past four years designing the robotic bird. And with success: young zebra finches…

Context-based learning has been implemented in secondary chemistry education. Hans Vogelzang, PhD at ICLON, reseached whether Scrum methodology might support creating context-based lessons. Scrum appears to be beneficial to learning outcomes. Defence on 10 November.

Ayo Adedokun, Assistant Professor at Leiden University College The Hague (LUC), was one of the four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year Prize for 2022. The National Prize is an annual event organized by the Dutch National Students Association (Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg, ISO), and the…

Tailoring teaching to students’ learning needs in speaking skills in modern foreign languages is desirable, but difficult to achieve in regular classes in secondary schools. Esther de Vrind, PhD, manager and teacher educator at ICLON, developed a method to make this easier. Defence on 25 November.

The current dissertation presents a review study and three empirical studies, focusing on the understanding of the state of the art of research about PjBL in higher education and the investigation of the relation between PjBL and student outcomes in the context of Chinese higher education.

Three Humanities lecturers received the Senior Qualification in Education (SKO) this year. University lecturer Bruno Verbeek is one of them. What does he think makes for good education?

Leiden University has published its annual report for 2019. The report is a testament to everyone’s hard work and creativity and shows just how much we have achieved together: students, lecturers, researchers, support staff, administrators and supervisors alike.

In line with tradition, the opening of the academic year will see the presentation of the LUS Teaching Prize to the University's best lecturer. Get to know the nominees. This week: Kim Beerden.

On 4 April 2019, the University of Basel held a conference on the subject of digitisation in academic teaching.

‘We’re going to see each other again on campus. We’re so pleased, but we do have to say safe.’ Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl is looking ahead to the new academic year, which begins on 6 September. No more 1.5m distancing, but we do have to take responsibility for other people’s safety.

The aims of research and teaching within the Educational Sciences programme are to understand in how individuals develop and learn and to optimize education for all individuals.

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In the year 2024 Young Academy Leiden said goodbye to eleven of its members, who became YALumni. In the five years they were member of YAL, they all experienced and learned new things in their academic careers. Below they share a number of experiences they have gained in recent years that relate to…

In this 'Educatip's column, psychology teachers share their key insights about work. This time: course coordinator Evelien Broekhof received support from teaching assistant Vincent during the last term. ‘I have more room in my schedule now that I don't have to do everything alone anymore.’

Social scientists from Leiden University have worked with an international team to create teaching modules on migration.

Learning with the City, a partnership between the Municipality of Leiden, Leiden University and University of Applied Sciences Leiden, has a new online platform. Learning with the City aims to use knowledge and expertise from higher education to solve social issues in Leiden. The platform will help…

A study in the Behavioral Biology group of Carel ten Cate at the IBL showed that experience-dependent and -independent preferences influence song learning in zebra finches.

On 12 July, a workshop was held in hybrid format (on site and online) at the University of Reading in the UK on the subject of 'EU law teaching in the UK post-Brexit: Learning from EU law colleagues based in other non-EU states and seeking UK solutions'.

Jorrit Rijpma was invited to teach at a number of summer schools this year. He lectured at the CLEER summer school on External Relations, the ICPMD summer school on migration and asylum and the Odysseus summer school.

Foute taal? Bestaat niet!

There are over 17,000 universities in the world. Leiden University is placed in the top 100 in the world in four leading international rankings.

Business, international organisations and government – you’ll find them all in The Hague. It’s a place where you can exert influence, expand your network, and enter into unique partnerships.

The Centre for Indigenous America Studies (CIAS) at Leiden University is designed to coordinate and promote the teaching and research of Indigenous languages, literatures, cultures and cultural heritage.

The Leiden University Center for Statistical Science unites the statisticians teaching and researching at Leiden University.

The Faculty of Law is becoming more sustainable in many ways, both in teaching and research.

An international collaboration, including Leiden physicist and computer scientist Vedran Dunjko, showed that quantum technology can speed-up the learning process of artificial intelligence (AI). To prove this, the physicists and computer scientists used a quantum processor for single photons. Their…

An international collaboration, including Leiden physicist and computer scientist Vedran Dunjko, showed that quantum technology can speed-up the learning process of artificial intelligence (AI). To prove this, the physicists and computer scientists used a quantum processor for single photons. Their…

The brains of adolescents react more strongly to receiving rewards. This can lead to risky behaviour, but research in Leiden has shown that it also has a positive purpose: it makes learning easier. The publication of an article on the research findings led to a lot of media attention.

Edwin Bakker, invited speaker, at The EU conference on the future of higher education on March 9, 2016, advocated in his presentation ‘MOOCs as drivers of change: The teacher’s perspective’ for an open and positive attitude to digital learning environments and to leverage the potential of technolog…

Radiography is an important technique to inspect objects, with applications in airports and hospitals. X-ray imaging is also essential in industry, for instance in food safety checks for the presence of foreign objects.

On 24 May, Iyiola Solanke, Jacques Delors Professor in EU Law at the University of Oxford's Faculty of Law and Fellow of Somerville College, gave the annual Europa Lecture organised by Europa Institute in Leiden Law School's historic Lorentz Lecture Hall. Her lecture was entitled ‘A decolonial approach…

At the beginning of March 2020, the Dutch Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA) awarded Daan Weggemans of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs a research grant. The Taskforce is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

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Artificial intelligence systems are smart. They can recognize patterns better than humans, for example. Yet humans are still very much needed. How can you better steer those AI systems? LIACS lecturer Jan van Rijn wrote a book about this together with a number of colleagues. We asked him a few quest…

Artificial intelligence systems are smart. They can recognize patterns better than humans, for example. Yet humans are still very much needed. How can you better steer those AI systems? LIACS lecturer Jan van Rijn wrote a book about this together with a number of colleagues. We asked him a few quest…

Tremendous amounts of data are generated in scientific research each day. Most of this data has more potential than we are using now, says Katy Wolstencroft, assistant professor in bioinformatics and computer science. We just need to integrate and manage it better.

Op 30 september 2021 gaat professor Marc Boone (Universiteit Gent) op emeritaat. Op woensdag 8 september vindt er een huldiging plaats en wordt een bundeling van zijn beste stukken, verzameld door zijn leerlingen, voorgesteld.

Kan een computer in de rechtszaal net zo goed uitspraak doen als een rechter? Hoogleraar Recht en informatica Jaap van den Herik vindt volmondig van wel. Hij legt het uit in een college van de Universiteit van Nederland.

De acht ambities van de onderwijsvisie Learning@LeidenUniversity stonden centraal op het drukbezochte Onderwijsfestival op 19 juni. Meer dan 200 docenten en studenten kwamen naar innovatieve broedplaats PLNT voor inspiratie en best practices op het gebied van onderwijsvernieuwing.

De voorjaarsvergadering van de Stichting Oudchristelijke Studiën vindt plaats op 7 maart 2020. De ochtendlezing wordt verzorgd door Prof. Gie Vleugels, terwijl Dr. Klazina Staat instaat voor de middaglezing.

Op 29 november zal Lex Bosman, hoogleraar architectuurgeschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, een afscheidscollege houden, getiteld: "Ruimte: een architectuurhistorische verkenning". Het college vindt plaats in de Aula van de Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Op 26 september vindt de boekpresentatie van de jubileumeditie en herziene vertaling van Thomas Kempis' Navolging van Christus plaats in Boekhandel Van der Velde in de Broeren in Zwolle. De presentatie begint om 20.00 uur (inloop vanaf 19u30).

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of the Faculty of Science and Leiden University College with four universities in Nigeria.

‘Critical thinking’ is an expression all academics have heard of: it’s the first learning objective in the Leiden Vision on Teaching and Learning. It’s both a historical topic with roots that reach back a long way and a topical problem too. The question on everyone’s lips is whether critical thinking…

Good teaching isn’t as easy as it might seem. In November, the Month of Open Teaching, staff at Leiden University therefore have the opportunity to ‘spy’ on talented colleagues. ‘We are making it as easy as possible to see what the neighbours are up to.’