Apprentices in the art of debate: that is the best description of the group of secondary-school pupils from Pre-University College who battled it out with each other and European parliamentary candidates on 29 March. The fitting location was Huis van Europa in The Hague.

The new book, ‘Njord in de Oorlog’ (Njord during the War), describes how the Leiden student rowing club was affected by the Second World War in a detailed series of personal stories. On Monday 16 November, Njord president Rosalie ten Wolde presented the first copy to Rector Magnificus Carel Stolker.

Newts of which half of the offspring die before birth. Evolutionary biologist Ben Wielstra is investigating how this can exist in nature. In his research he collaborates with Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

On Friday the 6th of December, the annual symposium of the IBL was organized at the Buruma theatre (LUMC), Leiden. This year’s theme was “Biological Networks from Molecules to Society”.

Many years ago, Winston Churchill said; ‘Jaw to jaw is better than war’. Therefore the quality of the jaw to jaw and diplomacy is important. Unfortunately, the quality of diplomacy is decreasing.

The British House of Commons International Trade Committee quoted Dr. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law at Leiden University College The Hague, in its report on the “Continuing application of EU trade agreements after Brexit”.

For this interview, we spoke with Thomas Ansell: Head of Communications at The Hague Humanity Hub. The organisation facilitates and supports innovations geared towards peace and justice. They provide new connections, collaboration networks, and exchange of information. What kind of organisations is…

Buying chocolates as a sign of love, getting the best deals on Black Friday and putting on a spooky costume for Halloween. In recent years, these holidays and traditions have taken off in the Netherlands, even though they originated on the other side of the ocean. Why are we so excited about American…

Goldband, Skrillex, Róisín Murphy and... quantum: the latter may not be a band but is part of the Lowlands line-up nonetheless. Scientists from Leiden University are using the festival for research on the very smallest particles.

Professor Felix Ameka and university lecturer Maria del Carmen Parafita Couta have received an NWO Open Competition grant together with Enoch Aboh (University of Amsterdam) to do research on ‘code-switching’: switching languages by multilinguals.

Fake news about ‘patient zero’ and hyperbolic headlines warning about the ‘yellow peril.’ Leiden researchers have spotted fake news galore about coronavirus as well as racial stereotypes about the Chinese. How harmful is this?

You’re about to start your minor at Leiden University. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

Joeri Reinders, universitair docent bij het LUC, ontving een NWO-subsidie voor het project 'Het KlimaatCasino'.

VVI Research Meetings 2023-2024

Students came from far and wide to the Master’s Open Day to make sure that a Master’s in the Humanities at Leiden University is the best option for them.

The brand-new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) ‘Risk in Modern Society’ starts on Monday 29 January. This course was developed by the Centre for Safety and Security of the Leiden•Delft•Erasmus alliance.

Africa is online. Leiden Africa expert Mirjam de Bruijn is fascinated by the fast development of mobile telephony and social media in Africa. She maintains a website on the topic, focusing on isolated, marginalised and conflict-ridden areas in Middle Africa.

One of the EU's most heralded weapons against tax avoidance and evasion falls prey to political whims, is applied arbitrarily, and lacks transparency, according to tax observers and lawmakers.

On 22 January 2018, the Massive Open Online Course ’A Circular Economy of Metals: Towards a Sustainable Societal Metabolism’ kicks off. This course is developed and taught by associate professor Ester van der Voet.

The headline of the Financial Times on 5 May – 'Northern Ireland tensions threaten to derail Brexit long-term EU-UK deal' – was greeted as a blast from the past. This blast from the past led to the EU requesting to set up an office in Northern Ireland. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor at Leiden University…

There is a lot of discussion about international students and Dutch universities. The Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of Development programme is an international bachelor's programme. Forty per cent of our students come from outside the Netherlands. We ask five students how they feel about studying…

In the Dutch EenVandaag-article 'Waarom we nog altijd beter luisteren naar witte mannen en hoe we dit kunnen veranderen' (Why we continue to listen more carefully to white men and how we can change this) cultural anthropologist Jasmijn Rana (Leiden University) and Jens van Tricht (author and founder…

Do you have a question about student life in Leiden or in The Hague, studying at Leiden University, or do you want more information about International Relations and Organisations? You can get in contact with a student directly!

Just about everything that's known about Charles Darwin has already been said or written. Even so, Norbert Peeters – together with Tessa van Dijk – has managed to write an original book about the great English scholar. In the run-up to Darwin Day (12 February) he tells us about his new book.

Thousands of curious students and parents are visiting the Open Day on 5 March. How do they get a good idea of the study programmes and the city?

‘Children do not see color’ is an illusion, say experts. Professor of the interdisciplinary tudy of societal challenges, Judi Mesman, was interviewed by the Dutch news platform NU.nl to share her expertise on the subject of speaking to children about racism and discrimination. Prof. Mesman's main research…

How do you microscopically image zebrafish larvae? The new free online course ‘Imaging the Vertebrate embryo’ teaches you all about it. Leiden PhD candidates Salomé Muñoz Sánchez and Radoslaw Gora contributed to the course.

Leiden University actively promotes diversity and inclusion. In the online magazine Diversity and Inclusion you can read all about the symposium, the exhibition and what the University is doing to make sure that all students and staff feel welcome at our University.

On 19 April, several mosque organisations criticized the way in which the Dutch intelligence service wrote the annual report about increasing 'anti-democratic' tendencies in after-school lessons in Islam and Arabic. Constant Hijzen, assistant professor of Intelligence Studies at the Institute of Security…

Commercial parties offering space travel, space waste, claiming the moon, potentially exploiting resources ... It’s going to get busy in space in the coming years. But there are no clear agreements about this. Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Assistant Professor of Space Law, talked about the topic in Spraakmakers…

Snowball the cockatoo gained world fame on social media. Millions of people saw him dance to Queen and The Backstreet Boys. In the journal Current Biology scientists study Snowball's dancing abilities and what they teach us about the origins of dance. Professor of Animal Behaviour Carel ten Cate casts…

In May 2024, ahead of the European elections, Professor Wolff spoke to 135 pupils from the European Primary School The Hague about Democracy, Europe and the European elections.

In the occasion of the NVIC 50th anniversary, Doorbraak magazine interviewed Dr Rudolf de Jong to talk about the NVIC main activities in Cairo.

Last week Professor of Animal Behaviour Carel ten Cate was interviewed about intelligent birds, in response to the recent publication of his book 'Avian Cognition' by NPO1.

Young transgender people are able to decide together with their parents on a reversible intervention with puberty blockers. These are the results of a study by LUMC Curium and Amsterdam UMC of 74 young people undergoing treatment. Ninety percent of the young people studied proved able to make an informed…

Afghans who came to the Netherlands in a hurry, refugees who were used as leverage by Belarus and boat refugees who tried to reach Europe in an increasingly desperate manner: the newspapers were once again filled with news about migrants. Today, on International Migrants Day, we talk to professor Marlou…

Working together, sharing information, communicating and having the same goals. At the official opening on 30 November, biologist Koos Biesmeijer compared Beehive, Leiden University's new student centre in The Hague, with the activities in a real beehive.

A mother who is far from the romantic ideal image of the mother as we know is the murderous mother. Genevieve Lhermitte, the mother who killed her 5 children, or the neurosurgeon who killed her 14-year-old daughter whose trial recently ended are examples of shocking stories. It goes against every thought…

300 hundred man went down with Dutch VOC vessel ‘de Rooswijk’ on January 9 1740 for the coast of Deal in the UK.

The Faculty of Archaeology has a partnership with Archeologie Magazine, the largest archaeology-themed magazine in the Netherlands, aiming to improve its societal impact. Every edition of the magazine, one page is devoted to research done at our Faculty.

Skate legend Tony Hawk came to Antwerp. Belgium newspaper De Morgen published an article on the changing skate culture. Cultural Anthropologist Sander Hölsgens shines his light on this theme and talks about the democratisation of skate boarding, activism, public space and collective memory of skater…

Jan Sleutels, senior university lecturer of philosophy, has been interviewed by the Leidsch Dagblad about the Leiden wall poems. Together with researcher Marina Terkourafi, he will conduct research into the 'impact' the wall poems have on Leideners.

Nira Wickramasinghe, professor of modern South Asian studies at Leiden University, spoke to Al Jazeera about Sri Lanka's turbulent past:

Associate Professor Erik Bähre talks about the upcoming elections in Brazil on the Dutch Radio channel BNR Radio.

Would you like to organise a session during the biggest multidisciplinary event in Europe - the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) conference - to be held in Leiden from 13 to 16 July 2022? If so, send us your proposal! Archaeologist Corinne Hofman is one of the driving forces behind the conference and…

The 2015 and 2018 Personnel monitors show that maintaining a good work balance remains difficult for staff at the Faculty of Humanities. Lecturer and researcher Judith Naeff and holder of the operational management portfolio Suzy Sirks have joined the Work Balance Steering Committee to examine the…

Writing a story from the perspective of a Rwandan girl set in Africa is not an easy task. Alumna Cultural Anthropology Ruth Erica did it. Her debut novel The tree with the bitter leaves, in which an important supporting role is played by a student of cultural anthropology, appeared in August 2020.

Planets existing in other solar systems contain invaluable information about the origin of planets and life. PhD candidate Yapeng Zhang has studied their atmospheres by looking at their smallest parts: isotopes. With her research she hopes to discover what makes our own solar system unique.

Online dating is hard enough on its own, but these days you also need to know what terms like ‘zombieing’ and ‘prela’ mean. Alumni Milou Andree and Vivien Waszink wrote ‘Swipen voor een kwarrel, a book that discusses all the dating jargon, from the ‘scharrel’ to ‘pigbutchering’.

In every parliamentary system, people vote on political parties during an election instead of a president. It is very unlikely that one party gets the majority of the parliament. Therefore, a government is formed by negotiations between parties. In Belgium, this process is far more complicated than…