Leiden University

Leiden's The Hague campus puts you at the centre of global governance. The International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, Europol, OPCW, and over 200 international organisations are headquartered in The Hague. No other law school in the world has this proximity to the institutions that define international law.

For law students, this means internships at the ICC, attendance at ICJ hearings, guest lectures from sitting judges, and networking events with international lawyers. The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies connects students to The Hague's legal community through research projects and conferences.

For Indian students targeting careers in international law, human rights, or global governance, Leiden's The Hague campus is the most strategic choice in Europe. The combination of Leiden's academic reputation and The Hague's institutional ecosystem creates opportunities that simply do not exist elsewhere.

Sixteen Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Leiden University, primarily in physics and medicine. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity here. Einstein held a visiting professorship. The Leiden Observatory is one of the oldest and most productive astronomical research centres in the world.

Today, Leiden's science faculty continues this tradition with world-class research in quantum matter, astronomy, bio-pharmaceutical sciences, and mathematics. The Lorentz Center hosts international workshops that bring leading scientists to Leiden year-round. Students in physics, chemistry, and biology benefit from this research intensity through lab placements and thesis supervision by active researchers.

For Indian students with strong science backgrounds (particularly from IISc, IISERs, or top BSc programmes), Leiden offers research training in a European environment with a tradition of fundamental discovery. The intimate department sizes mean you will work closely with professors who are leaders in their fields.

Leiden's humanities faculty is distinguished by its global scope. While most European universities focus on Western philosophy, history, and literature, Leiden has centuries-old expertise in Asian, Middle Eastern, and African studies. The Kern Institute (Southeast Asian Studies), the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, and the African Studies Centre are among the best in the world.

This breadth comes from Leiden's colonial-era connections to Indonesia, Japan, and the Middle East — which produced extensive manuscript collections, language programmes, and area expertise. Today, these resources support modern scholarship in globalisation, migration, digital humanities, and cross-cultural studies.

For Indian students interested in humanities, Leiden provides something rare: a European university that takes Asian and non-Western scholarship seriously, not as an afterthought but as a core strength. The South Asian Studies programme draws on centuries of Indo-Dutch academic exchange and provides genuine expertise that most European universities lack.