Alumni & Friends
Benefits of being a part of the network
Whether you want to attend alumni events in your current country of work or study, start a regular meet-up with your old classmates, or help us recruit international students, the Alumni & Friends Newsletter is a great way to keep informed and stay connected. As an alumni or friend of the University you are offered:
- Opportunity to attend our career events
- Theme days for different professional groups
- Seminars and events with top researchers
- Alumni & Friends newsletter (4 times per year)
- Taking part in our alumni surveys
What does it mean to be an alumni?
Become a client in a student collaboration
What does your organisation or company need help with? Students are looking for clients in a wide range of fields. Working with university students can be an important part of your organisation's development work and lead to new innovative products, services and work processes. At the same time, your organisation will have the opportunity to make contacts with researchers and students who could become future employees. There are many forms of collaboration and we are open to your ideas and suggestions.
Be a guest or inspirational speaker
We are looking for alumni to speak at career events, seminars and other activities organised by the University. We would like to hear from you if you are interested in being a guest or inspirational speaker.
Employ a student
On Malmö University's employment portal ‘Future Finder’, you as an employer can advertise internships, full or part-time jobs. The service is free of charge and the ads are aimed at current students and students about to embark on their careers.
Give a gift to Malmö University
Your commitment is welcome! Malmö University wants to address the complex societal challenges of our time with research-based knowledge and you can choose to support one of our selected research areas. Every contribution is appreciated, regardless of size.
Connect with Malmö University to learn more about these opportunities.
More about alumni
Guide current students
Guide current students
As an alum, you might be interested in guiding one of our current Master's students in the English speaking programmes.
Sakariya puts his heart into all his assignments
Sakariyas Hirsi was born into community work and was active for several years before applying to the Human Rights programme at Malmö University. In 2020, he and a friend launched the Kollektiv Sorg (Collective Grief) campaign in collaboration with Amnesty International.
Sakariya puts his heart into all his assignments
Sakariyas Hirsi was born into community work and was active for several years before applying to the Human Rights programme at Malmö University. In 2020, he and a friend launched the Kollektiv Sorg (Collective Grief) campaign in collaboration with Amnesty International.
His first voluntary assignment was to work with new arrivals and socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
“I used to accompany my mother when I was a child. She was active in a parents' association in Stockholm and wore her yellow vest everywhere she went. I saw the effect her efforts had on other people,” he says.
Collective Grief
He launched the Collective Grief campaign together with Josef Farhan. They wanted to draw attention to the problem that people who had lost a loved one in a shooting often had to deal with their grief alone. The campaign grew into a movement, and in 2022 Sakariya was awarded the Anders Carlberg Memorial Prize for Influencer of the Year.
A good friend in Stockholm was studying for a bachelor's degree in human rights at Malmö University. "When she told me about the programme, I thought it sounded interesting. One plus was that it was taught in English.
Sakariya studied during the pandemic, when classes were held remotely. Despite this, his time as a student gave him a broader network and a deeper knowledge of human rights work, laws and other concerns that were important for his future work.
"I got involved in the board of Kollektiv Sorg during my time as a student in Malmö.”
Today, he works as a youth counsellor helping young people find their way in the labour market.
“Some of my strengths are that I am good at bringing people together and creating platforms. I also think I am good at affirming and connecting with people. That is important to me.”
Joar builds worlds – turning a love for drawing into indie game career
Joar Jakobsson's life took a turn that has allowed him to work with what he loves most – computer design! He now gets to express his creativity by building and creating computer games.
Joar builds worlds – turning a love for drawing into indie game career
Joar Jakobsson's life took a turn that has allowed him to work with what he loves most – computer design! He now gets to express his creativity by building and creating computer games.
“I've been lucky to be able to work with something I love and also combine it with living abroad; that really wasn't my ambition when I started studying. Back then, I thought I might work as a visual artist or design book covers,” he says.
After secondary school, Joar applied for a course in interaction design at Malmö University. He has always been interested in drawing, painting, and sketching. This led him to discover the bachelor's programme in visual communication. The programme gave Joar tools and skills that he finds very useful.
“We were encouraged to study abroad for one semester during our final year. I went to South Korea – it was my first time abroad and I wanted to go far away to shake things up a little.”
During his final year at Malmö University, he began developing the basis for the game Rain World and posting about its development on an internet forum. He was then contacted by James Primate, with whom he began collaborating. James has, among other things, composed the music for the game and is now responsible for maintaining Rain World, as Joar has moved on to work on other projects.
Rain World gave Joar the opportunity to live his dream. He is one of the Swedes who has succeeded in what is known as the indie game world. He is now working on a racing game where the vehicles are flying motorcycles. He does the graphics and programming, which means he does most of the work except for the sound. James remains a close collaborator who produces, writes, and creates sound and music.
During the summer months, Joar returns to Swede, but for the rest of the year, he chooses to live abroad, something he has done on and off for fifteen years. During that time, he has lived in Italy, Brazil, and Ghana – since he only needs a laptop to work, he can be anywhere he wants in the world.
"My job is about coming up with different ideas, some of which I choose to realise and work on, while others don't come to anything.”
Joar's tip for students:
If you find something fun, give it time and dare to explore it.
Career and seminars
Career tips
Career tips
As an Alumni, you are welcome to attend our workshops, such as how to write a winning CV, as well as individual career counselling at the Career Service.
Personal data
Malmö University protects your personal integrity in accordance with GDPR guidelines. Read more about it here.
How Malmö University handles and uses personal data
Malmö University has been working with alumni relations since 2012. The goal of the Alumni & Friends coordinators is to create and develop sustainable relationships between the University and our alumni. We offer the opportunity to engage in various activities so that Malmö University can continue to attract talented students and researchers, and to create an international network of like-minded individuals.
The University works to maintain contact with all alumni whose contact information we have. The purpose of this is to keep you informed about what is happening at Malmö University and how we can contribute to your continued development and success. We also want to keep in touch with you in order to improve our educational programmes and research, and to strengthen our brand nationally and internationally. As a university and government organization, it is our duty to inform about our business. The legal basis for processing personal data is that processing is necessary in order to protect interests that are of fundamental to you who choose to register in our network and/or newsletter.
Malmö University protects your personal integrity in accordance with PUL and the GDPR from May 2018. We use consent as a basis and you can withdraw your consent at any time. The following statement describes how Alumni & Friends collects information about you and how the information is processed for our activities.
Collection and storage of personal data
We receive information about you and your education from Malmö University via Ladok. Some information we have about you may also come from membership in our Alumni network. We may also have received information about you if you have participated in any of our events or if you have been a member of an alumni association. Your data is stored for an indefinite period in support of Alumni & Friends' activities.
The personal data that is stored comprises:
- details of your education such as courses you have completed, study duration, degree and the degree year (we not store details concerning grades);
- personal data such as your full name and personal identification number;
- your contact details (address, email, phone number);
- information on whether you are involved in Malmö University in any way, for instance through membership in our alumni network, as part of a student association, as a mentor, donor, or volunteer, etc;
- your preferences regarding communication, to help us provide you with tailored and relevant information;
- information on whether you have participated in any of our event;
- information on whether you have participated in any of our surveys.
Processing of personal data
Your data is used for a number of purposes in support of alumni activities. These include:
- our digital newsletter;
- surveys;
- invitations to events;
- news about Malmö University;
- news about opportunities for engagement; and
- internal work for administrative purposes, such as administering an event you participated in or registered for, and handling any feedback or complaints.
There is no statutory or contractual requirement for you to provide us with your personal information and what kind of communication you want from us is entirely up to you. If you have questions about any of the purposes stated above or how we communicate with you, please contact us at alumni@mau.se.
In accordance with the GDPR, Malmö University upholds your "right to be forgotten". Upon your request, we will stop processing your personal data. Please contact us for more information.
Alumni & Friends only shares your data with other departments at Malmö University under unique circumstances; usually, this applies to evaluation of education programmes and courses.
Your rights
You are entitled to:
- ask us about access to, correction of, or deletion of your data;
- restrict processing (pending correction or deletion);
- control what communication / marketing you want to receive; and
- be forgotten.
How we protect your data
- We ensure that we have appropriate data security agreements with our system suppliers.
- We do not sell personal data to third parties.
Our data protection officer is responsible for monitoring compliance with relevant legislation in connection with the protection of personal data and can be contacted at dataskyddsombud@mau.se. If you have a complaint about how Malmö University processes your personal data, you can contact the The Swedish Data Protection Authority via the following link.
