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…

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.

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

Performance of a meta-analytic study can be very valuable within a PhD-project. A meta-analysis enables the PhD-candidate 1) to obtain a good overview of the state-of-the art of the research field of the PhD-project, and 2) to get insight in the way the research problem is tackled, analyzed and reported…

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…

Renate Buisman is an assistant professor at the Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University.

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

After a detour via the ANWB in Munich, alumna Manon Schouten works as a history teacher at two schools. ‘It's so rewarding to see the material resonate with students.’

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…

Each programme has a Board of Examiners. This is a legal requirement. The board determines whether students meets the conditions of the Course and Examination Regulations (OER) and whether they possess the knowledge, understanding and skills required to pass the final examination for that programme.

From research on the first human ancestors to leave Africa to mathematical models in random disturbances. For Leiden researchers have been awarded a prestigious Vici grant by the Dutch Research Council.

Rich, white, urban: Western politicians often represent a small segment of the population. Political scientist Hélène Landemore advocates for a more inclusive democracy. She will deliver the Cleveringa Lecture on November 26.

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…