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Guest students

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As of the academic year 2011-2012 guest students will be admitted to the Master programme Vitality and Ageing of the Leyden Academy. Everyone with a completed Master degree and proven affinity with elderly and/or a medical background can participate. The maximum number of guest students for each course is six.

The guest students are divided in three groups:
  1. Passive participant/a la carte: as participant without receiving ECTS-credits.
  2. Guest student: you are registered as a student at a Dutch university and participating in assignments/exams with ECTS-credits.
  3. Contract student: registering at our academy and participating in assignments/exams with ECTS-credits.

For more information regarding these different forms of participation, you can consult the website of the Leiden University. You can also find the eligiblity criteria for each of the different forms and you can download the form for registration as a guest student.

The appreciation
Courses are completed if the guest student has attended eighty percent of the seminars and has taken the exam succesfully. Only upon taking the exam, students can acquire ECTS credits. At the end of the academic year all guest students will receive a certificate. If applicable ECTS credits will be mentioned on this certificate.

Costs
You can find an overview of our courses in the curriculum in which you can also find for each course what the costs are. As a student at Leiden University you can follow courses free of charge, please do register at our academy because of the limited number of places available. If you are already registered at a Dutch university you can, after contacting us, register at the Leiden University as a guest student. It is possible to apply for a grant from the Vitality and Ageing fund, via the application form, which you can download here.

The courses
In principal only the core themes within the programme can be followed as a guest student. This concerns the following courses:

–         The ageing process (18-22 September 2012)
–         Biological mechanisms of ageing and development (24 September-21 October 2012)
–         Anthropology of ageing (29 October-19 November 2012)
–         Demography of ageing (3 December-13 December 2012)
–         Multimorbidity and geriatric giants (2 January-10 February 2012)
–         Healthy longevity and vitality (13 February-16 March 2012)
–         Structure and financing of healthcare (4 April-20 April 2012)
–         Models of care (30 April-18 May 2012)
–         Governance (21 May-15 June 2012)
For a detailed description of these courses, you can consult the study guide. Lessons take place on Monday- and Tuesday mornings.
More information and applying
All prospective students should apply first by using this registration form.
For more information, please contact the Leyden Academy via info@leydenacademy.nl or telephone +31715240960.

Public lecture: Prospects of Longevity

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Ageing is a vital topic in today’s world. With the growing ageing population and all concerns that are raised with this, it is important to understand what the future will bring in this respect. Until now, life expectancy has been steadily increasing and most scientists agree that there is as of yet no foreseeable stop towards this trend.
The extent to which our longevity will grow is however still open for debate. The trend will have great implications for societies worldwide. In this ‘Prospects of Longevity’ lecture we will delve into several aspects of the increasing life expectancy. The main questions that will be discussed are: is there a limit to how old we can get? And – if yes – where do we see this limit considering current scientific evidence?
Prof. Westendorp will discuss in what way demographic and medical-technological changes have fuelled the increasing life expectancy we see nowadays. Due to the advances in medicine we are able to cure a large proportion of infectious diseases that were especially present among our younger population, he has identified. In the Netherlands, virtually all of us now reach the age of 65 and a large proportion even becomes older. Babies that are born nowadays in the Netherlands can even expect to live until a 100 years. On the basis of this evidence he will extrapolate what we can expect in the coming decades.
Based on his experience in biomedical technology, Dr. Aubrey de Grey will present a different view. His prominent claim is that we can extend the life-span unlimited with current and future technological development. By addressing the underlying mechanisms of ageing, such as for instance changes in the nuclear DNA, mitochondrial mutations, accumulation of damaged molecules, cell loss and cellular senescence, we will be able to extend our life span according to Aubrey de Grey. Moreover he claims that even today we already have the biomedical technologies to actually remedy these mechanisms and he will put them forward in detail during this lecture.

Both views predict our longevity will be extended, but the debate in which way and how long will be open to the public.

 

Programme Prospects of Longevity
11 October 2011
19:00 Introduction
Marieke van der Waal, Msc
Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing

19:15 A demographic perspective on life expectancy
Rudi Westendorp, PhD, MD
Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing & LUMC
19:45 Short break
20:00 An engineering view on life expectancy
Aubrey de Grey, PhD
SENS foundation
21:00 Discussion

21:30 Drinks

 

The lecture will take place in the Theaterzaal of the Scheltema complex, Marktsteeg 1, Leiden.
Attendance is free of charge and registration can be done via this online form.

Elder abuse symposium

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Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing has organised a symposium on elder abuse on Wednesday March 30, 2011. Twelve international speakers discussed the topic in order to put it more prominently on the agenda in the Netherlands. During the symposium the state secretary of health, welfare and sport Marlies Veldhuijzenvan Zanten-Hyllner MD presented her action plan on elder abuse.

International scientists such as emeritus Professor Elizabeth Podnieks, Professor Simon Biggs, Professor Paul Kingston, as well as Dutch scientists Hannie Comijs and Anne Margriet Pot contributed to this day. You can download their presentations here:

Dr. Hannie Comijs, GGZinGeest/VU University Medical Center
Em. Prof. Elizabeth Podnieks, Ryerson University
Prof. Simon Biggs, Melbourne University
Yulya Mysyuk, MA, MSc, Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing
Prof. Anne Margriet Pot, VU University/Trimbos-Institute
Dr. Mei-Chen Lin, Kent State University & Prof. Howie Giles, University of California, Santa Barbara
Susan Kurrle, MD., PhD., University of Sydney
Prof. Hélène Thomas, Institute of Political Studies Aix-en Provence
Prof. Josef Hörl, University of Vienna
Dr. Claire Scodellaro, Université Nancy 2

Background information
In the last decades, elder abuse has been more and more on the agenda worldwide. Prevalence studies from all over the world show that about 5% of the elderly have experienced abuse of some sort. Studies in the Netherlands indicate that it is not much less here. Abuse of elderly does not only concern physical abuse, as the term might convey. It can also involve financial, psychological, or verbal abuse. Exploitation and neglect are expressions of abuse. In some cases different forms of abuse play at the same time.

Although in the past the attention for elder abuse in the Netherlands was lagging somewhat behind, the theme currently receives more and more consideration. Practical guides and procedures how to identify and intervene in cases of abuse are growing. In the Netherlands, however, there seems to be a relative standstill in scientific development of the topic. A thorough scientific concept of the phenomenon is not yet advanced. Especially the embedding of the phenomenon in a wider, social, context is needed. The speakers specifically addressed this during this symposium and a scientific publication on this topic is currently in preparation.

For more information about this symposium you can contact us via info@leydenacademy.nl.

Special scholarships for Dutch students

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The Vitality and Ageing fund is granting special scholarships to Dutch students for the academic year 2011-2012. It concerns five scholarships that each cover the full tuition fee of 18100 euro. Excellent Dutch students that satisfy the entry requirements and are interested in our master programme can apply for these scholarships. Prospective students that wish to qualify for the scholarships can contact us or register according to the standard procedure for our master programme.

Public lecture by Sharon Kaufman

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On October 19 the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing will organise a public lecture by the well known American anthropologist  Sharon Kaufman. The lecture is entitled  “Making longevity: technology, policy and ethics in US health care”.

During this lecture Sharon Kaufman, PhD., professor at the University of California, Institute for Health and Aging, will present her views on how technologies, clinical evidence and medical procedures influence and shape expectations, practices and knowledge of people in late life.
 
Time: 16:00 – 19:00
Location: Congreszaal Poortgebouw, Rijnsburgerweg 10, Leiden
 
Here you will find detailed information about professor Kaufman’s lecture. 
 
Please let us know if you consider to attend this lecture by sending an e-mail to info@leydenacademy.nl.
Smoking main cause of lower Dutch life expectancy

Smoking main cause of lower Dutch life expectancy

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Smoking is the main cause of the fact that the Dutch have a lower life expectancy. This is one of the conclusions of the survey ‘Dutch life expectancy from an international perspective’, conducted by Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing in cooperation with NIDI (Dutch Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute).

In this survey the researchers compared the life expectancy in the Netherlands to other developed countries, such as Japan, France, United States and Sweden.

Besides the fact that smoking is almost completely responsible for the differences in life expectancy of Dutch and Japanese men, it turned out that stop smoking has an effect up to a very high age. In other means, it is never too late to quit smoking.

Click here for the survey.