The more diverse a work environment is the more creative and innovative it will be. This in turn promotes quality of education and research, which is why Leiden University is committed to equal opportunities for each individual, whether these are opportunities for appointment, for promotion, or to optimally…

Starting this month, January 2026, the university has replaced the old SAP system and has started using BAS InSite. You use BAS Insite to easily arrange your leave, expense claims, report in sick, and various other personnel and financial matters. This is major step forward, but one that requires your…

Prof.dr. M.A.H. van der Woude Prof. dr. J.P. van der Leun

We’ve been using BAS InSite, the university’s new basic administration system, for a month now. The transition to a single integrated platform for all HR, financial and administrative tasks went smoothly, for the most part, but also created a few challenges. ‘It’s not just a technical change; it also…

How do we at Humanities ensure a better work balance and more job satisfaction? A group of colleagues considered that question on Tuesday afternoon, 31 January. Two members of Academia in Motion also joined in the discussion.

Would you like to reimagine your role as a member of staff or as a student, and the role of the university, in researching, teaching, and community building? If so, please apply by 23 February for this year’s Una Europa Staff Week, happening from 2 to 5 June in Helsinki, Finland. This year’s theme,…

A paper during her master's degree put student Luca Andrea on the trail of Roman coins. While on an internship at the Teylers Museum, she organised the coin collection and came across some fascinating stories. 'Coins have had all kinds of functions.'

‘It is OK for employees to work flexibly, as long as they spend 40 hours in the office’, said Elon Musk in June 2022. Are we back where we started now that the pandemic is over? What is needed to make flexibility prosper? Helen Pluut is researcher in Organizational Behaviour at Leiden University and…

Rita Sousa-Silva is an ecologist interested in investigating the links between urban green spaces, biodiversity, and human well-being.

Luísa Pinto e Netto is an assistant professor at Leiden University specialized in fundamental rights, with a particular focus on social rights. Following her career as a state attorney in Brazil and a PhD on the development of fundamental rights, she is building a research agenda in the Netherlands…

Ralph Rippe is a tenured Associate Professor at the Institute of Child and Education Studies, Leiden University.

Karin de Wild is Assistant Professor in Contemporary Museum and Collection Studies at Leiden University. Her current research is about digital heritage collections.

Stephan Raaijmakers is a professor of Communicative AI at the Centre for Linguistics.

Catalina Vicens Jeldrez is PhD candidate at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts.

The central question of my research is: Which syntactic properties do all languages have in common, which properties are variable and which associations are there between these syntactic variables? The goal of this research is to contribute to a theory of natural language that explains the range and…

Saskia van Otterloo works as a policy advisor on climate adaptation at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands. She graduated in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology and development sociology. How does her knowledge of anthropology help her in her job…

Let’s take a look behind the scenes of the Faculty Board. Our assessor, Hannah Saberi, shares her typical working week.

Overnight, working from home became the ‘new normal’ for most Leiden University’s employees. And now, just as abruptly, we are heading back to the office. ‘But it will be different than before, we expect that most of the employees will continue to work from home for one or more days a week.’ Niels Laurens,…

Roderick Bouman is collection manager of the Leiden Hortus botanicus. He keeps track of which plants there are in the garden, where they come from and makes sure visitors can find the right information about them. ‘We are like a regular museum,’ says Bouman. ‘Except that our objects are alive. That…

The need for knowledge among practitioners and the lack of an academic knowledge base for specifically collective arrangements of social work in the Netherlands were the reason for Anouk de Koning, Femke Kaulingfreks and Maartje van der Woude to start working on a Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) application…

Leiden University wants to ensure that working abroad on a short-term or long-term basis is properly managed. This applies to staff coming from other countries to work at Leiden University or staff wishing to work or move abroad. A new authorisation procedure applies from 1 July 2025.

This October the Future Think work group was launched at FSW. The work group is addressing an urgent challenge that everyone in higher education is now facing: how can we design assessment in a reliable, fair and future-proof way in an era in which artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining…

For the health of the staff and the whole organisation, it is important to have an open and honest conversation about work pressure – and to do something about it. New websites offer faculties and staff tips and tricks on how to reduce work pressure.

The aim is to involve as many faculty colleagues as possible in the development of the new Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP). So after several stakeholder meetings and information gathering, the ball is now in the court of four working groups with a variety of members. They will carry out a SWOT analysis…

The Academia in Motion programme aims to activate Open Science and Recognition & Rewards across the university. Last year, the faculties were asked to establish their own working groups and set up initiatives. On Thursday 23 January 2025, Leiden Law School’s working group met for the first time.

All those new initiatives and new policies are nice, but how do they affect work pressure and student welfare? You can judge that best by walking around on the work floor, according to Kiki Zanolie (Faculty Council) and Esther van Leeuwen (Institute Council). As chair persons, they work diligently to…

In recent months, the Work Balance in Action core group has taken several steps to improve the work balance at the Faculty of Humanities. The programme is now ready to be shared more widely across the faculty. Core group members Annemiek Hogendorp, Jaap Kamphuis and Ylva Klaassen tell us what to exp…

In response to the Personnel Monitor light, the Steering Committee on Work-Life Balance has produced a plan to improve work-life balance at our faculty. This interview with Annemiek Hogendorp and Adriaan Rademaker, both members of the Steering Committee, will shed more light on the plan.

Work balance has been a hot topic at the faculty for several years. A smart approach to lectures can help reduce workload. Three (senior) university lecturers share their tips.

‘Safe working is a form of professionalism,’ says Hugo M. Nijhof, head of the Health and Safety department. Starting next year, there will be more focus on this topic. New opening hours will be introduced for the buildings, along with new rules for working outside office hours. Nijhof: ‘Together, we…

Since the demonstration over a year ago on the Wijnhaven campus, Leiden University has developed plans and initiatives to create the safest possible work and study environment for our university community. The Executive Board would like to explain what has happened since and what else we can expect…

Aske Plaat is the scientific director of LIACS, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Systems. He is also an ambassador for Leiden University's LGBT+ Network. His enthusiasm shines through when he explains why.

We are busy introducing a new method for filling our online study guide. From now on, all study guide texts and the structure of the educational programmes will come from TimeEdit Curriculum (TEC). In the background, we are currently working the go-live of the study guide processes…

Tessa Verhoef from the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga from eLaw- Center for Law and Digital Technologies have written an article on how affective computing should be inclusive, diverse, and work for everyone.

Erik Danen is the new Dean of the Graduate School from 1 January. He is a professor at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research and conducts research into cancer drugs. Danen is really looking forward to it: ‘PhD candidates are a special group: that's what I like to dedicate myself to.’

Work balance is an important issue within the Faculty of Humanities. Education coaches Astrid Van Weyenberg and Maarten van Leeuwen also deal with this regularly during their coaching sessions with lecturers. They have listed their most important tips.

Opportunities and challenges of digitalisation, the platform economy, and flexibilisation of European labour markets.

Microscopic swimmers such as bacteria do not always swim alone. There are advantages to exchanging information and cooperating. Stefania Ketzetzi and colleagues now show in Nature Communications that human-made microswimmers, too, can cooperate.

What can you do about sustainability in your immediate living environment? On Thursday afternoon, April 14, the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden was filled with policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, citizens, students, and even the mayor of Leiden. Leiden University and the Association of Dutch Municipalities…

The youngest institute of the Faculty of Science has had a real growth spurt in recent years. It is up to Martina Vijver as the brand-new scientific director to secure that growth and further develop CML. 'This is a challenge that I am really looking forward too,' says Vijver. 'Together with my colleagues…

Veel Nederlanders hebben fysieke, psychische en sociale problemen tegelijk. Zij hebben hulp nodig van meerdere professionals uit verschillende organisaties. Fia van Heteren onderzoekt hoe deze professionals met elkaar én met cliënten samenwerken, en welke factoren deze samenwerking versterken of bel…