You have two options:

1. Officially certified copies by your university
Copies must be certified as genuine (original stamp and signature) by the Registrar of your institution or the Head of your department and should be sent in a sealed institution envelope (original stamp and signature) to the Admissions Office of Leiden University (either by you or the institution).

2. Officially legalised documents
Including an Apostille statement. For more information on how to request this in your country go to: https://www.hcch.net/

Photocopies or copies from a local Town Hall are not acceptable. If a diploma is requested, but it will not be available before the registration deadline, please submit a complete certified transcript accompanied by an original statement from your institution confirming your diploma instead.

If the original documents are not issued in English, French, German or Dutch, they should be translated by a sworn translator (or the institution itself) and attached to the original translation.

Officially certified copies of Dutch academic records may be sent to the Admissions Office. We also accept a digitally certified pdf from Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO), confirming your diploma (Uittreksel uit het diplomaregister): https://duo.nl/particulier/uittreksel-diplomagegevens-downloaden.jsp. Please send this pdf by email to phd-admissions@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

• IELTS: academic modules only. Minimum score 7.0 overall, and a minimum score of 7.0 is required for each of the four components.

(Not accepted: IELTS General Training or IELTS Indicator)

• TOEFL: internet based (IBT): Minimum score 100 overall, a minimum score of 25 is required for each of the four components.

(Not accepted: TOEFL My Best ™ scores (multiple test scores combined), TOEFL Essentials™, institutional tests such as ITP.)

• Cambridge Advanced Certificate: Minimum score 185.

You can be exempted from submitting one of the above-mentioned English test results if:

• You have an International Baccalaureate™ Diploma (IB DP) taught in English.
• You completed your secondary or higher education in the USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada (except French-taught programmes in Canada) Singapore, South-Africa or Malta.
• Dutch PhD candidates with pre-university education (vwo) level English.
• English taught MA programme at a Dutch research university.

In exceptional cases, PhD candidates who otherwise qualify for an exemption but whose application documents cast doubt on their English proficiency, may be asked to take an English test.

• Dutch taught programme at a Dutch research university.
• Dutch PhD candidates  with pre-university education (VWO).
• International PhD candidates: Dutch CEFR level C1.

You can be exempted from submitting the above-mentioned language test result if:

• You have a foreign diploma on university level,  comparable to a Dutch MA programme, where the programme was taught in the language that is the same as the dissertation will be written in.

In exceptional cases, PhD candidates who otherwise qualify for an exemption but whose application documents cast doubt on their language proficiency, may be asked to take a language test.

• CEFR C1

You can be exempted from submitting the above-mentioned language test result if:

• You have a foreign diploma on university level,  comparable to a Dutch MA programme, where the programme was taught in the language that is the same as the dissertation will be written in.

In exceptional cases, PhD candidates who otherwise qualify for an exemption but whose application documents cast doubt on their language proficiency, may be asked to take a language test.