It is the connection between the local, national, European and global that makes Leiden University a strong global player and a connecting anchor for the benefit of all citizens and scientists at the different levels. Connecting worlds and disciplines is something Leiden University does naturally through its research, teaching and outreach activities.

‌‌‌‌Our research, whether applied or fundamental, and whether disciplinary-specific or transdisciplinary by nature, is built on extensive international collaborations. Our research-based teaching, innovative curriculum, and teaching methodologies originate from international collaborations and exchanges of best practices. Hence, global engagement is fundamental to achieving research and teaching excellence.

Our strategic partnerships focus on connecting strengths and are forged from key areas for global impact. These partnerships strengthen all universities involved. We support our global strategic partnerships with our regional policy that ensures that Leiden University operates as one university in its diplomatic engagement and during academic missions. We foster knowledge exchange across disciplines in relation to our work with priority regions and maintain local involvement through our alumni. Our regional policy 2.0 continues to build on the strengths of Leiden’s positioning, including our extensive expertise and collaborations across Latin America, Africa, China and Indonesia. These collaborations represent the multitude of disciplines at Leiden University ranging from the arts, humanities and social sciences to the STEM discipliners, Life sciences and medicine. Examples of the foundations for this work are:

• The Leiden observatory, the oldest university observatory in operation today
• The Leiden Asian Library, which holds some of the foremost collections on South and Southeast Asia, China, and Indonesia.
• The Leiden University offices in Indonesia and two centers in North Africa as well as an interfaculty institute for African studies.

The vision for our regional policy 2.0 is to connect internal expertise on the respective regions with the external environment at both the policy and operational level thereby ensuring alignment across existing agenda’s and connecting local and global ecosystems.

Our International classrooms ensure that students learn from students from other countries to see things from different perspectives. It is this kind of interaction that forms the basis of mutual understanding, an understanding that we desperately need in times like these. It also deepens our knowledge. This type of learning can only occur if we carefully design and bring together all elements of the international classroom that drive this interaction. The quality of the international learning experience thrives on the optimal mix of curriculum and cognitive learning methodologies, the student experience, diversity and inclusiveness, and langue policies.

Leiden University researchers maintain many top-notch collaborations across the globe representing high levels of expertise in niche areas and rare disciplines, as well as broad based multidisciplinary collaborations. The university is represented by academics that hold visiting professorships at many renowned institutions abroad. They contribute to new knowledge and understanding derived from a great variety of local contexts.    

Through its engagement in university networks including the League of European Research Universities (LERU), Coimbra and the European University Association (EUA), Leiden University positions itself strongly for the European Lobby in Brussels and taps into new knowledge and understanding by exchanging best practices across a range of policy and administrative areas. We seek to use these platforms also to shape our dialogues and exchanges with other university networks around the globe.

Leiden University invests in multilateral strategic partnerships that serve as platforms for forging innovative multidisciplinary research and teaching practices. Through the Europaeum network Leiden is committed to bridge the disciplines in the Humanities and the Social Sciences to promote European collaboration and engagement with European societies by driving academic mobility and bringing together young academics committed to making a difference and shaping the future of Europe. Eurolife offers similar opportunities for trans-national scientific and educational interactions at a European level for the life sciences. 

Within Una Europa – a network of eleven leading research universities in Europe – a far reaching vision has been developed to create a University of the Future. Not a place, but a body of ideas, knowledge and values. The innovations aim at transforming education on a wider scale, shaping Europe’s shared future for the better. Drawing on collective strength, and that of our partners and our communities, leading to technological, cultural and social innovation at huge scale. The University of the Future will engage with actors from all strands of society – across Europe and beyond – by connecting research, learning and innovation and thus create impact on the local, regional, national, European and global levels. We will leverage our collective legacies to shape Europe’s shared future.

To maximise our innovation potential we need a diverse international talent pool. With our commitment to academia in motion we have the potential to be a global front-runner in governance reform where new reward systems and incentives transform academic culture. Leading in this space will give Leiden the competitive edge to recruit and retain a new generation of diverse global talent to drive its academic excellence based on co-creation, collaboration with industry, societal engagement and transformational leadership skills. Moreover, the international talent pool that Leiden University needs to excel in effectively addressing the challenges of the 21st century.
Thereby positioning itself as the international academic Employer of the Future built on targeted
interventions across the full cycle of attracting, developing and retaining international
talent.

We strive to create a work and study environment where we are all part of one community where everyone feels equally at home, supported and valued. An inclusive community at Leiden University is the responsibility of all its members. Therefore, in order to make international staff and students feel welcome and receive support for onboarding, initiatives should be developed that connect sub groups in our communities and ask all members to play a pro-active part towards more inclusion.

Through our language policy, our Diversity and Inclusion Program, and our alumni policy we aim to foster wellbeing and belonging. Our responsibility for an inclusive community stretches beyond the walls of our own institution. It also means that we ensure that we are a true representation of society by offering opportunities to talented students from all walks of life, both nationally and internationally.

Co-creation with internal and external partners enriches our knowledge, our research and teaching outcomes, and hence our contributions to society at local and global level. Today, more than ever we need the freedom to break down organizational and disciplinary boundaries to do justice to our institutional responsibility to build resilient and sustainable societies. Our science communication is instrumental in how we engage and build links with these external local and global communities.

The substantial challenges that Europe is facing today rooted in populism, broad socio-economic impact of the global pandemic, war and an energy crisis require interdisciplinary sustainable solutions. Leiden University is well positioned to contribute to these solutions through its research, teaching and transfer activities. In particular the breadth of knowledge ranging from unique and extensive expertise on European history and cultures, European democracies and governance, and European Law and security on the one hand, to strong applied research in relation to food security, renewable energy and healthy societies on the other hand, are important assets for this purpose. Further consolidating this expertise in relation to societal challenges and addressing pressing SDGs is a priority. The establishment of the Europa hub European Approaches to Societal Challenges has been a first step in this direction and will serve as a basis for research transfer and policy dialogues.

We work internationally with leading research institutions with whom we share these ambitions and a deep sense of responsibility. As the LERU rectors announced in May 2021 when renewing their commitment to confront current and yet-to develop challenges at the European and global stage: Reducing global systemic risks and preparing for the next crisis further requires a deep understanding of the broader social, economic, cultural, and political processes governing global change and collaboration. This fundamental understanding can only be achieved by combining our knowledge and perspectives at a global level. Only together with our global partners can we ensure that the knowledge garnered within academia is channelled to where it can lead to breakthroughs.

Sustainable internationalisation is the norm for our global engagement. A sustainable approach to reduce our global footprint is mainstreamed in our global engagement activities, this means that we:

• integrate sustainability into our curriculum for our global classrooms to empower the next generation of global citizens for sustainable development.
• work collaboratively with our international partners to find sustainable solutions to global challenges such as climate change.
• engage in policy dialogue with national and international agencies to drive solutions to climate change.
• adopt a sustainable approach to our international operations where we create incentives for students and staff to reduce their global footprint through responsible international mobility.
• invest in new forms of digital engagement in our approach to recruitment of global talent, developing our students for the global labor market, and undertaking collaborative research activities with international partners.

The foundation for independently questioning and voicing different perspectives is academic freedom. Whilst fundamental for debate and curiosity driven research, academic freedom also facilitates a common language within the global academic community. An objective, science-based language that is invaluable in mitigating complex geopolitical relations, polarization and misinformation.

Academic freedom is under threat in many parts of the world and it is our collective responsibility to safeguard this fundamental right. Within our institution we seek to provide a 21st  century bastion of freedom that is sensitive to the long arm of autocratic regimes and considers the social safety of our colleagues whilst at our institution and upon return to their countries of origin. 

Leiden University aims to protect fundamental values by safeguarding academic freedom, integrity and institutional autonomy. An essential part of these aims relates to protecting our key research findings and intellectual assets. We promote awareness about foreign interference and invest in the development of institutional processes, build on multidisciplinary advice, to address risk monitoring and assessment.

Research and teaching are a crucial part of foreign relations and consequently of foreign policy and our position makes us eminently qualified for diplomacy. Our academic practice, based on knowledge and facts, can be a crucial factor in international relations. Governments and citizens increasingly face non-conventional hybrid threats based on the manipulation of the information environment. Rivalry between democratic and authoritarian systems leads to the creation of conflicting narratives, conflict and non-traditional political warfare. The academic voices around the globe are needed more than ever to facilitate knowledge diplomacy and educate and inform citizens. As a broad comprehensive university Leiden has a multitude of multidisciplinary perspectives to offer voiced by members of its community with roots around the globe. We see it as our responsibility to promote academic freedom not only within the walls of our institutions but at the global stage.