If you would want to set up an alumni network after you graduated in Leiden and returned to your home country, how would you go about it? Seven Leiden alumni in China did not hesitate and decided to just do it! Last year they launched the Leiden Alumni Chapter in China, an initiative which was met with…

An impressive 60 alumni recently came to the Dutch Embassy residence in Japan to meet, network, see friends and practise their languages.

From assistance in the event of natural disasters to peace-keeping missions. As a communication adviser, Leonoor van Poelgeest goes to all those destinations where the Royal Navy are active. Why did she choose this work and how has her Public Administration study helped her?

Patients who can’t afford medicine. Refugees who need help. Expats who are ill. All alongside research into obesity. Having trained as a doctor, Dennis Mook-Kanamori chose the hard reality of life as a GP together with a job as a researcher at the LUMC.

Carmen Gonsalves has been the Dutch ambassador to Chile since this autumn. She studied history in Leiden. How useful has her degree been and what’s it like to be an ambassador? ‘Diplomacy is fascinating.’ We spoke to her just before the presidential elections.

Tommy Hopstaken and Jochem Haverhoek run an escape room in Kruithuisje, a medieval tower on what was once the perimeter canal in Leiden. They are also secondary-school teachers and make good use of their escape room experience in their lessons. How do their degrees in Dutch and Astronomy come in use…

To read Chekhov in the ‘original’. That was what motivated Arie van der Ent to study Slavic languages and literature with Karel van het Reve at Leiden University. ‘My love for Chekhov hasn’t faded,’ says Van der Ent from his home 60 kilometres south of Kyiv. ‘But it has for the rest of Russia.’

Are you eager to bring your own questions and curiosity into scientific research? Do the creation of media and use of technology drive your research interests? Could you be a researcher who challenges scientific practice and pushes its boundaries?

Last Tuesday 20 February, the first Public Administration Alumniactivity took place, with the theme: Citizen participation in theory and practice. Carola van Eijk talked about her PhD Research 'Engagement of citizens and public professors in the co-production of public services.' Menno Spaan, founder…

Recently, the BAIS Alumni Association organised their yearly reunion. Due to the current circumstances, there was a twist: the reunion – as many events that are currently being organized – took place online. This was a perfect solution for a Bachelor programme that finds its students from all over the…

On a sunny Saturday on June 9th, the first Alumni Reunion of the BA International Studies took place in The Hague. Organised in Café Schlemmers, a stone’s throw away from a Plein buzzing with students trying to enjoy to the comfortable temperatures, approximately 40 alumni and BAIS staff got together…

What’s new, BAIS alumni? This summer, the BAIS Alumni Association hosted the yearly alumni reunion, organized in virtual format for the second time after the previous reunion also took place online in 2020. Feeling the need to compensate for the lack of in-person interaction, the Alumni Association…

The Republic of Indonesia celebrated its 75th Independence Day on 17 August 2020. As a gift to celebrate this, on the initiative of a group of Leiden alumni*), a biography will be written of Leiden and Indonesian scholar Hoesein Djajadiningrat.

She stands out for the moderate tone she takes in discussions on Dutch talk shows. Without judgement you can have an open conversation, criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin learned in her student days in Leiden. ‘What I personally think of the alleged act doesn’t matter so much.’

Cornald Maas was able to ‘pioneer’ in Leiden. This Dutch Studies graduate, presenter, programme maker and publicist combined an active student life with studying hard.

Students get free advice of Leiden alumni about their career, applying for a job, social networking and more. The Mentor Network is an online platform on which more than 650 alumni offer to help students.

One of the good things about my job is that I come into contact with so many different alumni. It’s incredibly important that we build good relationships with our alumni from a young age already. We can help our graduates develop skills and grow their network, and they in turn can help our organisation…

‘To be honest, I knew very little about the Netherlands when I arrived in 1998. But studying law in Leiden was a very enriching experience.’ Nathalie van den Berge grew up in a number of different European countries, and now works at a UN office in Tanzania, where she lives with her Dutch husband and…

Alumnus Francis Farrell (International Studies, 2018) works as a reporter at the Kyiv Independent, where he covers Russia's war against Ukraine. 'I experienced some crazy moments on the front line'

Alumna Louwien Eising is headteacher of Carmel College in Emmen. How have things been during the pandemic? And how has her degree in Education and Child Studies helped her? ‘In the evening I was attending lectures and the next day I was applying what I’d learnt in the classroom.’

As an enthusiastic nature lover, Maaike Kempes began studying biology at Leiden University. Now, she is extraordinary professor of Forensic Neuropedagogy at the faculty of Social Sciences. She is researching how neurobiology plays a role in delinquent behaviour among young people. ‘They’re like Ferraris…

Marlon Titre (1982) studied at Royal Conservatoire The Hague, did his PhD and studied at Leiden University, earned several other qualifications and is now, among others, Director of Filmhuis The Hague. Who is this multi-talent?

Marion Anker is a junior curator at the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of the Netherlands. She studied History in Leiden and Amsterdam. Together with her team, she organised the controversial exhibition ‘Revolusi! Indonesië onafhankelijk!’ What did studying History teach her?

On a stormy Tuesday evening in June an Alumni Seminar was held for alumni and students of the (International) Leiden Leadership Programme for which a special international guest had been invited: Dr. Anna Dolidze.

Bhumika Gupta (21), International Studies alumna, secured an internship in the OPCW, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. She has set a path for herself, leading towards the job of her dreams, and this internship is a big step towards that future job.

With cultural anthropology alumnus Jeroen Windmeijer, Leiden has added another writer to the fold. Following the success of his religious-historical thrillers, he has been able to call himself a full-time writer since 1 January 2019. ‘Not a true story but still true.’

Alumnus Peter Burger – along with his colleague Alexander Pleijter – is the face of fact-checking in the Netherlands. ‘My degree led straight to this.’

‘People talk at the coffee machine about what’s on the front page of De Telegraaf.’ Kamran Ullah took office as deputy editor-in-chief of De Telegraaf on 1 January this year. Ullah began studying Public Administration at Leiden in 2002.

On Friday 9 November 2018, the long-awaited Public Affairs Alumni Event was held. It coincided with the celebration for the 15th edition of the Public Affairs course programme.

Fourteen of the candidates for the European parliamentary elections on 23 May studied at Leiden University. We ask four of them about their motivation and ambitions. In this article: Conny van Stralen, who studied German, and Maurice Hoogeveen, who studied history.

Franc Weerwind studied Public Administration at Leiden University from 1986 to 1992. Right now, mr. Weerwind is the mayor of the municipality of Almere. The editors of Leidraad, the alumni magazine of the university, had a talk with him in context of the recurring ‘workplace’ section in the magazine…

On 1 November 2019, the annual awards of the NLF (Nederlands Lucht- en Ruimtevaartfonds) were presented at a Gala Dinner at the Hotel van Oranje in Noordwijk.

On March 16 students and alumni of the Advanced LLM in European and International Human Rights Law were brought together in an online Zoom event organized by our programme coordinator, Mahshid Alizadeh, and head of the LLM, Rick Lawson.

There are many tributaries to Rosalin Kuiper’s story and they all lead to the sea. The 28-year-old sailor was one of the five-person Team Malizia in the world’s most prestigious sailing competition: the Ocean Race.

Robert Ietswaart does research into gene regulation at the famous Harvard Medical School in Boston. He developed an algorithm to better predict whether a candidate medicine is going to produce side effects. He studied mathematics and physics in Leiden, and gained his PhD in computational biology in…

Carolijn Brouwer and ambitious are synonymous. That has got her a long way. She was the first woman to be part of the winning team of the Volvo Ocean Race, the toughest of sailing races. 'Would I take part again? Only for a bigger challenge - as skipper, for example.'

Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies graduate Gillian King has two different jobs. Together with a partner, she runs ‘Het Leerhuis,’ a support centre for children with learning difficulties. But she also writes books, chick lit to be precise. This is how she has made something of a name for herself…

Wouter Moerland is on a two-year secondment as ecology adviser at the Municipality of Leiden. This biology alumnus talks animatedly about his work. ‘We’re working hard to increase nature’s chances in town.’

Having flirted with Egyptology and Italian, Dieuwertje Kuijpers found her true calling in the Master’s in European Union Studies. She is now a freelance journalist specialising in politics, security and defence. But she is also at home writing columns for ThePostOnline and hard-hitting articles for…

Jaïr van Rhenen studied Medicine in Leiden and is now a GP in the largely religious Veenendaal. Before this, he worked as a tropical medicine doctor in Lesotho. ‘If you have the prospect of an afterlife, you often respond differently to illness.’

Controversial environmental organisation Sea Shepherd fights illegal fishing all around the world and is not afraid to take direct action. Alumnus Geert Vons is director of Sea Shepherd Netherlands. How does he look back on his degree in Chinese Studies, and what motivates him in his work? ‘If we don’t…

After graduating from Leiden University College The Hague, our students spread out all over the world to continue their studies, do an internship or already start a job. Every other week we will catch up with one of our alumni and put them in the spotlight. They will share their LUC experience and talk…

Three alumni of our Master’s degree programme in Ancient History talk to us about how they found a job after graduation during the coronavirus pandemic. During the interview, Gabriël hung a huge board covered in post-it reminders behind his laptop, Molly was glad that the members of the selection committee…

Alumnus Jelte Liemburg, aged 29, aims to visit every single one of the 500 museums in the Netherlands that take part in the national museum pass scheme.

The banking system was in dire need of an overhaul; that much was clear from the credit crisis in 2008. The EU has made significant changes since. PhD candidate Barbora Budinská is researching the legal validity of the new supervisory mechanism for banks.

After completing one bachelor’s and two master’s programmes at Leiden University, alumnus in Philosophical Perspectives on Politics and the Economy Matthieu Agustoni finished his student life with a bang: he got his master's thesis published in a prestigious journal.

Alumnus Anoma van der Veere did Japanese studies and talks in this interview about his studies in Leiden and his work as a researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre and as Japanese correspondent in Tokyo.

What are the career prospects after the PhD?

The Indonesian Leiden University Alumni Association - IKALI bid farewell to Mutiara Indriani, the first Chair of the association since its establishment in 2018 and welcomes Pascal Hutasoit as the new chairperson.

It doesn’t take long before Tim van Lit has told us what interests him: problems that shake the nation. This 28-year-old Criminology alumnus heads a team of 25 at Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. Location: Schiphol Airport.