Friday 19 April 2024
Students and staff demand an end to access checks: ‘Am I the threat?’
Students and staff are completely fed up with the strict security measures at the Wijnhaven building without any explanation. In a petition, they demand an end to the access checks at the entrance. ‘I feel like I could be singled out at any moment.’
Thursday 18 April 2024
Conflict over new vice-rector (who has already announced himself as such): ‘Appearance of favouritism’
While the Executive Board and the University Council bicker over the appointment of a new administrative position – the so-called Vice-Rector of Organisational Development – the prospective candidate, FGGA dean Erwin Muller, has already announced himself as such in a YouTube video. ‘The democratic nature of the university is under pressure.’
Wednesday 17 April 2024
External and scholarship-funded PhD candidates to start paying fees
Starting from September 2024, the Faculty of Humanities will impose a fee for external PhD candidates and PhD candidates with a scholarship. The first group will have to pay 400 euros a year, the second 2800 euros. ‘PhD candidates who never had to pay are the lucky guys.’
Friday 12 April 2024
Everyone knows course evaluations are flawed (but we still use them)
They are unreliable, biased, misogynistic and discriminatory: lecturers are fed up with course evaluations. ‘This has been known for 50 years, and still we keep using them.’
Friday 29 March 2024
University has ‘dubious’ ties to Israel: ‘Partners systematically violate human rights’
Leiden University collaborates with Israeli universities and institutions in 11 European research programmes, including a counter-terrorism project involving former military personnel and the former head of the Mossad. ‘This is highly questionable.’
Wednesday 20 March 2024
Students feel safe(r) carrying pepper spray and rape whistle: ‘I’m not going to lock myself up’
After multiple reports of sexual assault and a rape, students feel unsafe on the streets. Mare decided to visit several associations and pubs on different nights and talk to students out for drinks. ‘Weird men don’t get to decide when I go out.’
Monday 4 March 2024
This feels like a betrayal: internationals saddened by new policy
They were lured in with advertisements about ‘an international-friendly place’ but are now being ‘thrown under the bus’, say foreign students. ‘This goes against everything the university promised.’
Thursday 22 February 2024
No more fossil ties, unless...
The Executive Board no longer wants to work with fossil companies that do not adhere to the Paris climate targets, but keeps the door ajar for some projects.
Thursday 1 February 2024
University to cut some fossil ties, but not all
Leiden University will terminate collaborations with ‘fossil industry partners that are not demonstrably committed to achieving the goals of the Paris climate agreement, unless the project has the explicit aim of contributing positively to these goals’. The University Council intends to further strengthen this proposed policy. ‘This is inconsistent and odd.’
Monday 22 January 2024
Leiden lawyer files case against the Netherlands over Palestinian victims
Leiden professor and lawyer Helen Duffy is assisting a Palestinian-Dutch man in his fight for justice for his family members who were killed in an Israeli military operation in 2014. ‘We’re filing a case against the Netherlands.’
Monday 22 January 2024
Students must vacate Pelikaanhof due to renovation
As of September 2023, students who move into Pelikaanhof are given a temporary occupancy agreement of up to two years instead of a standard lease. The reason for this is the renovation work scheduled to take place in the property, which will require all of the approximately 500 residents to have moved out of the building in a few years’ time.
Friday 22 December 2023
Strife within student party LVS: ‘There has been a coup’
There is conflict within student party Lijst Vooruitstrevende Studenten (LVS), the party for progressive students. The reason for this is an amendment about a possible merger of LVS and the parties ONS and DSP. Members who are against this plan feel they are being silenced and are threatened with expulsion from the party.