Leiden University also planning major cuts to Humanities programs

After Utrecht University, Leiden University is also planning major cuts to its Humanities faculty. African Studies and Latin American Studies will be scrapped altogether, while Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, and Southeast Asian studies will be merged into one. French, German, and Italian studies will also be merged into one program, the Leiden University newspaper Mare reported.

According to the university newspaper, the Humanities faculty is facing major financial difficulties due to increasing wage costs, students achieving fewer credits, and fewer doctorates coming from the faculty. The university expects budget deficit of 5.7 million euros annually from 2026 for the faculty, excluding higher education budget cuts the Schoof I Cabinet announced.

The university is therefore planning measures aimed at “reductions in teaching effort” equivalent to over 60 FTE of academic staff and 25 to 40 FTE of support staff.

The programs African Studies and Latin American are getting the axe as of the 2026/27 academic year. According to the university, there are not enough students to make these studies profitable. The university is also scrapping all specializations within its Middle Eastern Studies program. It is unclear what will remain in this program.

The university will also merge several programs. The Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, and Southeast Asian Studies will be merged into one program simply called Asian Studies. And the German, French, and Italian studies will be combined into one program called European Languages and Cultures.

The university was also advised to scrap Religious Studies due to low intake but decided against this. It also did not follow the advice to also include Russian Studies and English Studies in the European Languages and Cultures program, preferring to keep them separate.

The university board still has to formally approve the cuts and it is not yet clear whether the measures will result in layoffs. However, according to Mare, employees and students in the affected programs are panicking.

“International staff members, in particular, feel threatened,” Remco Breuker of the Korean Studies program told Mare. “It is all anyone is talking about.” He expects the cuts will happen as announced. “If the board wants something to happen, it usually does. That’s not how it should be, but it’s often how things go. And it’s happening far too quickly.”