When you choose Leiden University, you are choosing to broaden your personal and academic horizons. You will find a truly international atmosphere here, with an inspiring community of students, lecturers and professors who come from almost all regions of the world.
Our university has built a solid position of authority over four and a half centuries, and is today highly regarded, both in the academic and the professional world. Our academic staff include many top scholars with an international reputation of excellence. They provide outstanding research and teaching that makes the world a safer, healthier, more sustainable, prosperous and just place – at local, regional and global levels.
We want our graduates to become academic professionals and engaged global citizens who contribute to solutions for the challenges facing our society. This calls for teaching that is strongly research driven, focused on active learning, stimulates the development of academic and professional skills, and offers flexibility for individual learning paths. As a student, you will have the chance to closely interact with Leiden’s scholars and thinkers, conducting your own research and exploring topics that are timely and relevant.
Leiden University stands for freedom; our motto is Praesidium Libertatis: Bastion of Freedom. In an increasingly complex world, your opinion matters. This is why we offer you freedom to think, freedom in collecting knowledge and freedom in forming your opinion.
Leiden University’s size allows for a both personal and engaged experience for our students. Not only will you have access to our excellent facilities, including libraries with internationally-acclaimed collections and state-of-the-art laboratories, you will also get to know your lecturers, programme coordinators and fellow classmates through discussion, debate and teamwork. We will provide an environment in which you can excel and we will encourage you to give your best!
Leiden University is located in two amazing cities. Medieval and quaint, Leiden is the founding city and heart of the university. A short 10-minute train journey away is our second home; The Hague. Our teaching and research in the international city of peace, justice and security reflect the themes that are important to this centre of government and international diplomacy.
When I was choosing a study programme, I particularly wanted to do one with an international perspective. What happens beyond borders has a direct effect on everything that goes on within those borders. So I opted for International Studies. I was also interested in politics, so I chose to study Political Science at the same time, combining the two.
The university has so much to offer. When I started my master degree, there were heaps of opportunities for extra courses. I wanted to learn more and also followed courses outside my programme. And the different student organisations and associations were the perfect opportunity to get to know lots of people. That’s the reason I’m an Amnesty International volunteer, for example, and why I set up a student society in 2019: the MENA Student Association. We represent people from the Middle East, organising events relating to the region and culture, and striving to offer people from this region a safe place in which they don’t feel like outsiders due to their ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
I would describe myself as an idealist who wants to make the world a better place. You can also do that through small gestures, like helping a blind person with their shopping, for example. Eventually, I would like to be a diplomat, or fulfil my greatest ambition of becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs. Experience has taught me that whenever you open one door, another one opens too. There are endless opportunities to do things.
Zeineb Romdhane
Middle Eastern Studies