Leiden University was the first university to be established in the Netherlands. William of Orange gave Leiden Academia Lugduno Batava in 1575, it is said in recognition of the city’s courageous resistance against the seige by the Spanish invaders.
Our teaching is characterised by individual attention for students, contact with diverse cultures and innovative teaching methods. Personal supervision and the binding study advice contribute to our success. Our teaching and research are closely interwoven.
As an alumnus you can come to the Career Services for career guidance for up to one year after graduation. A session with one of the career counsellors is free of charge. For workshops you pay the student rate.
With many kilometres of beaches, hundreds of sights, excellent restaurants and lively cafés, the Hague really is a cool city to live in. However, arranging accommodation can demand a lot of time and effort for Dutch and international students. For this reason, finding a place to stay is one of the first things that need to be arranged when you are planning to study at Leiden University. But how do you actually find a room in The Hague?
The UBL owns a vast collection of scientific information, both on paper and online. Furthermore, UBL provides access to special collections of international allure. Among these are medieval manuscripts, archives, old prints, maps, sketches, drawings and photographs, both from the Western world and the Middle East and Asia.
Leiden University chose The Hague because the city’s identity complements the University. As a city of peace, justice and security and as a metropolitan area, The Hague provides plenty of opportunity for research and teaching. It is also the political and administrative heart of the Netherlands and a home to many international organisations. The teaching and research at Campus The Hague is closely linked to the city’s profile and is grouped into four key themes:
Studyportals ranking look at the scores of the most used ranking systems and present you with one number of how well this University performs.
By U.S. News & World Report
Dropped 5 places compared to 2026
Best Global Universities Rankings by U.S. News & World Report presents all the top universities from the U.S. and 60 other countries around the world. They measure the rate of students going to their second year of studies, as well as the rate of students who graduate. It also asks university representatives on the performance of universities, and evaluates university resources, teacher salaries, graduation rates, student academic achievements and satisfaction. After calculating and comparing these criteria, U.S. News ranks the top international universities accordingly.
| 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 56 | 56 | 61 |
We don’t have enough recent ranking data to show a 3-year trend for this university.
By TopUniversities
The university hasn’t moved up or down in the rankings over the past year.
QS World University Rankings is one of the top international rankings measuring the popularity and performance of universities all over the world. They measure university reputation based on the impressions of higher education experts, companies who hire graduates, and teaching quality. QS also considers the ratio of international teachers and students present at universities, as well as the times research papers were mentioned by researchers. After calculating and comparing these criteria, QS ranks the universities accordingly.
| 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 141 | 119 | 119 |
We don’t have enough recent ranking data to show a 3-year trend for this university.
By Times Higher Education
This university doesn’t have a ranking for 2027 yet. Rankings are updated yearly, so check back later for the latest info.
World University Rankings is a vital resource that provides the definitive list of the world's best universities. They look at how often they're producing new ideas, what their reputation is around the world, and how much they're contributing to science and academic fields. After calculating and comparing these criteria, THE ranks the universities accordingly.
| 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 73 | 70 | - |
We don’t have enough recent ranking data to show a 3-year trend for this university.
By Shanghai Jiao Tong University
This university doesn’t have a ranking for 2026 yet. Rankings are updated yearly, so check back later for the latest info.
ARWU World University rankings is the first world university ranking. It ranks the world's top 1000 colleges and universities based on objective indicator. They look at the number of award-winning (Fields Medals and Nobel Prize) scientists who are located there, how much of their research is cited and referenced around the world, and how much they've contributed to different academic fields. After calculating and comparing these criteria, ARWU ranks the universities accordingly.
| 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 101 | 101 | - |
We don’t have enough recent ranking data to show a 3-year trend for this university.
Based on 100 reviews
My experience at Universidad de Le�n has been positive overall. The programme offers a good balance between theoretical knowledge and practical work, especially through projects and lab assignments. Some professors are very involved and willing to help students understand difficult topics. The university environment is calm and comfortable for studying, and class sizes are generally manageable. I appreciated having opportunities to work on programming, software development, and teamwork projects. On the downside, some subjects could be more updated with newer technologies and industry trends, and the workload can become demanding during exam periods. Overall, I would recommend this university to students looking for a solid education and a good academic environment.
One of the most fond memories of Leiden University I have is the part of the campus I attended (Humanities, Archaeology). The university buildings for humanities are all located in and near the old and cosy city center making it a very fun location to study and attend classes in. The courses, professors and materials are of course all of modern quality but especially for Archaeology being able to attend the classes in matching historical buildings makes for an, in my opinion, fantastic experience.
Overall, there is no help from teachers with one exception only. No guidance at all, assignments most times don’t make sense since they are repetitive and no context from classes to fill in these tasks with new information. The expect you to do things an international student won’t be able to do easily (for this masters they wanted us to find families to work with in order to pass), it’s very much Dutch oriented while they present it as international oriented. If you go to The Hague campus there you will find internationals mostly. The good things are that there are not just lectures you get workgroups to practice the lecture material, you get a lot of nice examples from real life, food and coffee on campus (not free)
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