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The University of Leiden (UL) in the city of Leiden, is the oldest still existing university in the Netherlands. It is a member of the Coimbra Group and the League of European Research Universities.

The university was founded in 1575 by Prince William of Orange, leader of the Dutch revolt in the Eighty Years' War, as a reward for the heroic defence of the previous year against Spanish attacks, the tradition being that the citizens were offered the choice between a university and a certain exemption from taxes.

Originally located in the convent of St Barbara, the university was removed in 1581 to the convent of the White Nuns, the site of which it still occupies, though that building was destroyed in 1616.

The presence within half a century of the date of its foundation of such scholars as Justus Lipsius, Joseph Scaliger, Franciscus Gomarus, Hugo Grotius, Jacobus Arminius, Daniel Heinsius and Guardas Johannes Vossius, at once raised Leiden university to the highest European fame, a position which the learning and reputation of Jacobus Gronovius , Herman BoerhaaveHerman Boerhaave ( December 31, 1668 September 23, 1738) was a Dutch humanist and physician of European fame. He is regarded as the founder of the clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital. His main achievement was to demonstrate the relation, Tiberius HemsterhuisTiberius Hemsterhuis ( January 9, 1685 April 7, 1766), Dutch philologist and critic, was born at Groningen in Holland. His father, a learned physician, gave him so good an early education that, when he entered the university of his native town in his fift and David RuhnkenDavid Ruhnken ( 1723- 1798) was a scholar, one of the most illustrious in the history of the Netherlands. He was of German origin, and was born in Pomerania. His parents wanted him to go in for the church, but after two years at the University of Wittenbe, among others, enabled it to maintain down to the end of the 18th century17th century 18th century 19th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701- 1800; however, historians will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th Century as 1715- 89,.

The portraits of many famous professors since the earliest days hang in the university aula, one of the most memorable places, as NiebuhrCarsten Niebuhr ( March 17, 1733 April 26, 1815) was a German traveller. He was born at Ludingworth, Lauenburg, on the southern border of Holstein, the son of a small farmer. He had little education, and for several years of his youth had to do the work o called it, in the history of science. The university library contains upwards of 190,000 volumes and 6000 manuscripts and pamphlet portfolios, and is very rich in Oriental and Greek manuscripts and old Dutch travels.

Among the institutions connected with the university are the national institution for East Indian languages, ethnology and geography; the fine botanical gardens, founded in 1587; the observatory (1860); the natural history museum, with a very complete anatomical cabinet; the museum of antiquities (Museum van Oudheden), with specially valuable Egyptian and Indian departments; a museum of Dutch antiquities from the earliest times; and three ethnographical museums, of which the nucleus was P. F. von Siebold's Japanese collections. The anatomical and pathological laboratories of the university are modern, and the museums of geology and mineralogy have been restored.