Starting in the 2026–2027 academic year, Leiden University will offer three new, unique minors at the intersection of security, defense, and societal resilience.
The timing is no coincidence: the Netherlands is facing a rapidly changing security landscape. Hybrid threats, cyberattacks, sabotage by state actors, and the war in Ukraine make it clear that national security is no longer an abstract concept.
The three minors are deliberately designed as a cohesive package: together, they cover all layers of the security chain, from military resilience and crisis management to the day-to-day enforcement of law and public order.
Exchange in minors
Thanks to the LDE partnership, these programs are open not only to students at Leiden University, but also to students at Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam (this applies to all minors offered by the three universities).
Collaboration with the Netherlands Defense Academy
The minor in Defense and National Security explores the world of hybrid threats, modern warfare, and the management of national security. Students take courses on the wars of tomorrow, public leadership, and military ethics, including one course at the Netherlands Defense Academy in Breda, where all Dutch officers are trained.
National Resilience Training
The minor combines insights from security studies, public administration, law, and organizational science. Theory and practice come together in the second block: after a military physical examination, students participate in the National Defense Training (NWT), a ten-week basic military training program during which they temporarily serve in the armed forces. Those who wish to do so can remain as reservists afterward and thus make a concrete contribution to national security.
The Vulnerability of Modern Societies
The Crisis Management and Civil Resilience minor focuses on how societies cope with disasters, power outages, cyberattacks, and other crisis situations. Modern societies are vulnerable: prolonged power outages, overburdened healthcare systems, or failures of critical infrastructure can cause major social disruption. Students gain insights into crisis management, disaster response, and personal leadership, drawing on disciplines such as political science, anthropology, psychology, and sociology.
Internship
In the second module, selected participants take the Civil Resilience Training course, a practical internship in which they collaborate with the fire department, police, medical services, and the Department of Defense. In this way, the minor contributes to the national network of emergency support centers that the government is currently developing—a system in which citizens and emergency services reinforce one another in crisis situations.
Police and the Rule of Law
Finally, the Police Studies program focuses on how the police operate in an increasingly complex society. How do they balance law enforcement, collaboration, and societal expectations? When is the use of force permissible? How do police address cybercrime, diversity, and inclusion? Students delve into police organization and culture, public safety governance, and current dilemmas facing the rule of law.
Academic knowledge in the field
A unique feature of the program is the course on cold cases, which features lectures by both academics and practicing investigators. In the second semester, students complete internships with the police—ranging from public order enforcement and criminal investigations to cybercrime and international crime—and apply their academic knowledge directly in the field.
Criticism
The launch of the three minors has not gone unnoticed. Critics in the academic community have raised concerns, particularly regarding the collaboration between universities and the Department of Defense. For example, Judith Naeff, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Leiden University, expressed her concerns about the blurring line between academic education and military recruitment, as well as about financial incentives stemming from the growing defense budget.
The theoretical and practical aspects are crucial at a time when our safety is truly under threat.”
Jeroen Wolbers, director of education and the initiator of the minors, warmly welcomes this debate: “We are proud of these minors because they are offered as a package of three designed to teach all aspects of resilience, with a unique theoretical and practical component. This is crucial in these times when our safety is truly under threat.” At the same time, Wolbers emphasizes that the university actively seeks dialogue with critics: “It is important to learn from other perspectives as well.”
Examination and screening
All three minors are explicitly selective minors with a limited enrollment period. Participation in the practical components of the defense and resilience minors requires Dutch citizenship and passing a physical and mentaal fitness assessment; for the police minor, a police background check may be required. This makes them intensive, but also exceptionally valuable: students complete the minor with both academic knowledge and practical experience that cannot be gained in any classroom.
Leiden-Delft-Erasmus
For students at TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam, these minors offer a unique opportunity to gain access to this education through the LDE partnership. A technical engineer who understands how to protect critical infrastructure, an economist with insight into the administrative dimensions of a crisis, or a law student who gains an insider’s perspective on police practices: these are precisely the profiles the Netherlands will need in the coming years.
In doing so, LDE demonstrates that collaboration between the three universities not only broadens the range of educational offerings but also contributes to socially relevant issues of national significance.
Read more about this at Three new Leiden minors with internships in national security - Leiden University
