Alumni & Friends

Master's degree in Malmö led to development work in Mongolia

From the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, where she was born and raised into a family of nomadic camel herders, Chantsalnyam Luvsandorj has come a long way, in both miles travelled and personal development. And part of that journey included completing the Leadership for Sustainability Master’s Programme at Malmö University.

She is now back in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, where she is trying to put in to practise what she learned from her education in the face of a tsunami of acute societal issues.

She moved to Malmö, along with her husband and two children, “no big deal when you come from a nomadic background”. And headed back to her native country after graduating. She has now held a number of roles with the Ulaanbaatar Green Affordable Housing and Resilient Urban Renewal Sector Project, where she currently supports, along with her team, the coordination of the project.

Green housing solutions 

Its aim is to deliver green and affordable housing in the ger areas – districts located on hills and mountains surrounding the city – which suffer from poor infrastructure, extreme pollution, and a total lack of basic services, such as heating and running water.

“The city expanded rapidly over the last twenty to thirty years when people moved there for economic reasons. The sudden influx put huge strain on the infrastructures of the city. Homes are not connected to the heating, water or sewer systems. This means they are often heated by coal fires creating pollution issues.

“The city is the coldest capital city in the world and where half the country’s population lives. In the winter temperatures are around minus 30c and coal is the usual fuel, but people have to burn whatever they can find to stay warm,” explains Chantsalnyam.

Education in Malmö was crucial

She believes her education at Malmö University was pivotal to her getting the role she now has. The master’s programme was her first opportunity to study in English which opened up the English-speaking job market. The programme’s project management and the sustainability courses have proved to be core skills she now utilises on a daily basis.

Chantsalnyam describes the housing project, funded by the Asian Development Bank and Green Climate Fund, as challenging but exciting in a city with myriad issues.

“There is heavy traffic, because the public transport is not good, so we are reliant on individual cars. The city is not equipped enough to monitor the quality of the air and cancer rates are rising rapidly. It feels like we are in crisis mode.”

Climate change affects

A recent disaster encompasses many of the city’s issues: poor infrastructure, substandard housing and increasing snowfall caused by climate change. A truck carrying 60 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas was hit by a jeep on icy roads which led to three huge explosions. As a result, an apartment block was destroyed and three firefighters were killed, with many others injured.

“It’s the situation we see because nothing is made or designed to withstand that. What was an accident became a disaster. With the heavy pollution and health situation, people are very worried about the future of the country. I am happy to be given the opportunity to improve the situation, but we are too small to address the problem. We need to persevere and encourage more civic activism and civic engagement,” she explains.

Education led to sporty student scoring her dream job

A production job on a leading Swedish sports channel followed studies at Malmö University for Ebba Lagergren. She studied the programme Production Manager Media (now called Media: Management) and supplemented it with a double degree in leadership and organisation before landing the job.

When it came to university education, Ebba actively searched for a media programme with a leadership focus and found a programme at Malmö University that seemed to fit the bill. Her strengths, apart from a strong drive, are that she likes to plan and is a good communicator.

In addition to courses in graphic design, process management and web production, she has learned to keep many balls in the air during her studies.  

"It's a broad programme so you learn about a lot of things, such as starting and planning a production project, and making contacts within project management.  

During the last year of her programme, Ebba began to focus on what she wanted to work with.  

"I come from a sports-mad family and have played football and had my own horse – I love sport! Sport can create a community, it can be about issues such as inclusion, integration and gender equality, I want to work in such contexts.”  

Once the ‘goal’ was set, Ebba had a direction to go in and by chance, she spotted a job opening in sports at Sveriges Television (SVT).  

"I realised that as a student I didn't have enough work experience to get the job, but I called the contact person anyway and this led to me getting an internship. 

She now has a permanent position and works on various event broadcasts in areas such as football and horse riding.  

"My work involves planning, booking, and following up on internal and external staff and technology, booking travel and hotels and talking to organisers. It feels good to have a permanent position, but it has been an intense year. I have learnt a lot and worked a lot.”

Meet the author and journalist who was the first in his family to go to college

At the age of 22, Patrik Lundberg started studying media and communication science at Malmö University. He went on to receive a prize for the best degree project of the year, the theme of which was adoption.

At the age of 22, Patrik Lundberg started studying media and communication science at Malmö University. He went on to receive a prize for the best degree project of the year, the theme of which was adoption.

This laid the groundwork for a 2021 investigative article published in Dagens Nyheter (a Swedish daily newspaper), which he wrote along with two colleagues. The article went on to win two prestigious journalism awards and also was the subject of his book Adoptionerna, which was published last year.

Patrik knew as a child that he wanted to be a writer and journalist. The reason he applied for the programme was because he was interested in the media industry.

"The department integrated theory and practice, which I liked.”

He enjoyed his time at Malmö University, which he describes as flexible, and with responsive teachers, and which actively worked to improve the programme. One piece of advice he would give to all students:

"Remember that you have the chance to influence your education. When I started studying my programme had no internship, but I worked to make sure it did – make an impact while you're there!"

Today Patrik works as a columnist and journalist at Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm, and has written six books, all of which have been well-reviewed.

"The best thing about being a reporter is that you get to be where the action is and cover important issues.”

Artistic freedom

He describes his authorship as more literarily free than journalism.

"I don't have to relate to anyone; to write a book is really to write about what you want – I decide everything, including the style.”

Patrick's tips for students:

“Dream not about what you want to achieve but how you will achieve it. It's important to think long-term, as you will be working for many years.”

Photo: Stefan Tell^©

The surfing software expert and Malmö University alum

In 2000, when Aleksandar Rodzevski was in his second year of studying computer and electrical engineering at Malmö University, the dot come bubble burst. The industry collapsed and several of his classmates dropped out. But Aleksandar stuck to his plan and today, over 20 years later, he works as a software manager for the Malmö company Radinn, which manufactures electric surfboards.

“Although the second half of the nineties were good years and many people got jobs without higher education, I noticed that a university education was required to get the jobs that I really wanted. I applied to Malmö University's engineering programme with a focus on data and telecommunications; it was the most progressive education in that field at the time. The local mobile industry was booming, and I just wanted to finish my education as soon as possible – Malmö University was an obvious choice for me, and I started studying there not long after it was founded.”

Aleksandar describes himself as a super-motivated student who took on education as a full-time job and through a scholarship got the chance to do his thesis project in South Africa.

“During those six months in Cape Town, I had the chance to familiarise myself with Bluetooth technology, which at the time was a new technology that was starting to gather momentum.”

When Aleksandar graduated, the dot come bubble had burst and there was a hiring freeze in the industry. He was then offered another scholarship to continue delving into Bluetooth technology. This in turn led to a part time position at Malmö University to develop a laboratory platform for Bluetooth that was later used in courses for embedded systems.

In addition to teaching, Aleksandar had his own consulting company.

By 2004, Aleksandar was back in the technology industry, first at the consulting company Teleca and later working in product development and technology development for the mobile phone manufacturers Toshiba and Ericsson.

“I went around the world in search of new technology to implement in phones, but when the Swedish mobile industry later crashed, I started looking around for start-up companies in Malmö.”

After a few years at the Malmö company Anima, which manufactured smart watches, Aleksandar got an offer to work for the then newly started company Radinn. It now has approximately 50 employees and customers worldwide.

Aleksandar has stayed connected with Malmö University and in addition to teaching, he has helped develop courses in his role of advisor at the Faculty of Technology and Society. He has also managed to help an estimated 20 students with their thesis projects.

Last year, when he was invited to give an inspirational lecture for high school students who are thinking of studying technology at Malmö University, he jumped right in:

“The contact with teachers and students from my old university has been super valuable. Those relationships are definitely something I will continue to keep alive.”

The climate commitment that gives both work and meaning

Alum Tatjana Boric-Persson is an activist and part of climate movement Extinction Rebellion.

Three years ago, she left a comfortable but unsatisfying job as a media salesperson to devote herself wholeheartedly to the climate fight. Since then, she has created a climate crisis campaign, obtained a master's degree in Sustainable Urban Development from Malmö University, been convicted for peaceful civil disobedience, offered Malmö's politicians food salvaged from the garbage, and created collaborations with companies that want to work for sustainable development.

“The night before I went to a protest against Norway's oil policy, where I was arrested for the first time, I submitted my master's thesis at Malmö University,” Tatjana says, adding:

“I sat on a mattress in a cell, deprived of liberty in another country. It was there I finally figured out what I wanted to do with my life.”

It felt like something was missing

Her path towards becoming a climate activist began in 2018, when she worked at a newspaper in Malmö selling digital ads. “I had worked there for many years; it was safe and well paid, but it felt like something was missing and had done ever since I started.”

Previously, Tatjana had studied political science, but now she found herself stuck at work. Then came the summer of 2018, which was the hottest summer ever in Sweden, it resulted in huge fires, water shortages, failed harvests and emergency slaughter of livestock.

“Before the Swedish election in 2018, I thought that finally politicians would take up the climate issue, that it was no longer something distant and diffuse that affects only poor countries on the other side of the world. Now we see extreme weather as a result of global warming in Sweden; now no politician can turn a blind eye to it anymore. So I thought, but they could, and they did.”

Discovered her movement

That same year, Tatjana discovered the movement Extinction Rebellion (sometimes abbreviated to ‘XR’), which were fed up with politicians' inaction on climate issues and advocated peaceful civil disobedience. When the first XR group was formed in Malmö, Tatjana joined its ranks.

“We are in the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth. We are headed for mass death within our own lifetime. The realisation that there may be no turning back if we don't act forcefully now became my ‘oh crap’ moment.”

Tatjana decided that she could not continue to live her life as she had been. She took a leave of absence from her newspaper job and started studying Sustainable Urban Development. Through the training, she came into contact with Cykelfrämjandet – a non-profit association that works for a better, safer and more attractive cycling environment – where she started working part-time during her studies.

“Most of us in Sweden have the privilege of being able to get involved without risking our lives. We still live in a democracy and many people have both the time and the means to become active in the climate fight. But we have to reprioritise and challenge ourselves. Getting involved is immensely rewarding,” she adds.

Being a ‘star student’ can be a curse, says Iranian alum

Malmö University alum Shahriar Khonsari is a persecuted academic in Iran. Although deprived of jobs at Iranian universities, he has devoted his work to promoting social change through civic campaigns and freelance research.

In 2009, the results of the Iranian presidential election sparked a massive civil rights movement met with a brutal response by the country’s ruling establishment. Shahriar Khonsari lived in Tehran and felt disheartened about the situation. To learn more about tools for social change, he enrolled into and completed the Communication for Development master’s programme at Malmö University – all done remotely.

“I learned how social media can work as a catalyst for social change, how to organise campaigns and how to work with people. After my graduation, I organised campaigns with different Iranian NGOs and utilised social media platforms for creating impact. My latest campaign was about people arrested in Iran for no reason,” Shahriar says.

Along with working in the third sector, he enrolled in doctoral studies and held lectures at Iranian universities, but one day, his name had been erased from the lists of teachers. In 2020, Shahriar was prohibited from teaching – a job that had kept him hopeful for many years.

“I felt like I was useful for the new generations, even if I only had a class of 30 students. I tried to encourage discussions about social issues, and whenever a student asked ‘why?’ I knew they would be working for social change in the future.”

The Iranian government displays no tolerance for dissenting voices in academia and keeps students and faculty under watch. Shahriar is now a so-called ‘student with a star’, a person who cannot study in an Iranian university because of their past activities. For him, an academic career in Iran is no longer an option, and his university has refused to grant him a doctoral degree.

While being silenced in official stages, he can still pursue his academic interests as a freelancer. In recent years, Shahriar has studied war photography and social media mobilisations – particularly Iranian women’s protests on Instagram – and presented his work in international forums.

“There is a great uprising happening in Iran by women, and I believe we will see a regime change soon. Civic participation is the most important part of the uprising. Seeing young women stand up against the police without hijab and face them with no fear gives people the courage to join and fight for their rights,” Shahriar says.

He believes academics, too, have power in Iran, despite the systematic oppression from the government.

“They have an important role in any situation. People who have been living here for years need academia to be able to see ‘outside the box’. With the help of researchers, people start believing in their ability to change the current situation.”