Winchester partners with top Dutch university for study abroad

The University of Winchester (@_UoW) has forged a new partnership with one of Europe’s oldest and most respected universities. 

Winchester is excited to announce a new Study Abroad partnership with Leiden University in the Netherlands, giving its BA English Literature students the opportunity to spend a semester there. 

Leiden University was founded in 1575 and is one of the leading international research universities in Europe and its Arts and Humanities courses are currently listed at number 26 in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings. 

It has seven faculties and a campus in both Leiden and The Hague and a student population of around 33,000, representing more than 100 different nationalities. 

The historic city, which has a population of around 120,000, is in the southern part of the Netherlands on the Oude Rijn, a branch of the Rhine delta. It is only 20 km (12 miles) north of The Hague and 40 km (25 miles) south of Amsterdam. 

Leiden University, which celebrates its 450th anniversary in 2025, has an impressive array of alumni including the artist Rembrandt, French philosopher and scientist René Descartes, US president John Quincy Adams, former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutter, and film director Paul Verhoeven. 

It boasts 16 Nobel prize winners including Enrico Fermi one of the pioneers of nuclear physics. 

Winchester creative writing students will be following in the footsteps of one of the fathers of the novel Henry Fielding. The Tom Jones author travelled to Leiden in 1728 to study classics and law. 

The partnership with Leiden was set up by Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.  

Glenn said:

‘This is a fantastic opportunity for our BA English Literature students. To study at a university with such international pedigree in such beautiful and historic setting will be an experience they will never forget.’ 

Dr Michael Newton, Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, said:

“The staff and students at the English Department at Leiden University look forward to welcoming visiting Winchester students! We hope you will come to enjoy a semester studying English language, literature and popular culture, at the oldest university in the Netherlands, situated in a beautiful Dutch town with long-standing links to British writers.” 

Linda Huizinga-Coolen from The Humanities International Office at Leiden added:

“The Faculty of Leiden University is thrilled at having the University of Winchester as a new partner and is looking forward to an active mobility between students from both universities.” 

• Read Glenn’s blog about his recent visit to Leiden here

• To find out more about study abroad opportunities at the University of Winchester visit Study abroad – University of Winchester