Alumni

Dear all,

The spring application window for ComDev’s programs and courses is now open from 15 March – 15 April 2019 and we are once again looking forward to receiving your application.

Our 1-year flagship online blended learning MA program

You will find all the details on the 1-year MA page.

Based on the strong competition for spaces and experiences from previous admission rounds it will be difficult to get admitted to the program without submitting your application letter!

The MA program is a 50% full-time course taught in our online blended learning Glocal Classroom that we have pioneered, improved and enhanced for almost 20 years!
ComDev program coordinator Tobias Denskus introduced our Glocal Classroom in the context of Malmö University’s internationalisation efforts.

You can also read and listen to what graduates from the course have said about ComDev. We just uploaded three more profiles in connection with the ComDev experiences in the United Nations system, a portrait of one of our pioneering graduates from 2002 & a brand new short video:

The 2-year MA course package to study 60 more ComDev credits

For those of you who already completed 60 ComDev credits, the 2-year MA is now an easy-to-apply-to course package and you will find all the details on the 2-year MA page.

Advances in ComDev free-standing  15 credit course

And finally, our Advances in Communication for Development: Social Action, Planning and Evaluation course will be available again in the autumn. The course is part of the 2-year MA, but it can also be taken independently as part of your on-going professional development or a great way to get to know the ComDev learning environment better!

Please note that all applications have to be made through Sweden’s central university admissions website and that the ComDev team will only evaluate the letters of intent and not other parts of your application. University admission should always be your first point of contact regarding application matters, including formal qualifications or language requirements.

If you are a British citizen and wonder about the implications of a possible ‘Brexit’ the short (and legally not binding) answer is: It’s complicated…You are most welcome to apply, we appreciate that British students have always been an integral part of the ComDev community and we sincerely hope that things get sorted out and you will be able to study without paying fees in the foreseeable future!

Our colleagues at Malmö University admissions (admissions(at)mau.se) and our course administrator Josefin Waldenström can be contacted for technical questions regarding your application as well – and you can also get in touch with the ComDev team at comdev(at)mau.se – just allow a few days for replying individually during this busy period of the semester.

We are looking forward to your applications and welcoming you to Malmö in September 2019!

Tobias Denskus & the ComDev team

Between the 1926 March two second-year ComDev MA students, Abigail Leffler and Yee-Yin Yap, accompanied by the course coordinator Oscar Hemer, visited Beirut, Lebanon. The goal of the trip was to acquaint themselves with the socio-political climate of the country, and conduct interviews for their theses projects in connection with UNICEF  Lebanon’s refugee strategy, No Lost Generation.

The Production Project offers an opportunity to M.A. students who are pursuing the new 120 credit ComDev master’s programme to be creative while receiving hands-on experience in the production of a viable Communication for Development (C4D) media products.

Abigail and Yee-Yin’s Production Project will be linked to the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAPs) study that is currently being conducted by a team led by ComDev’s Ronald Stade, on behalf of UNICEF Lebanon. The KAP Study aims to discern a baseline study for UNICEF’s continued work in the country, and to recommend key C4D interventions for five of its key programme areas: Education, Health, Youth, Sanitation and Child Protection. It is hoped that some of the data from the KAP Study could be used to inform their production project initiatives, and their final Production Project presentation will be made available to UNICEF Lebanon.

During the trip, the team met with UNICEF’s C4D unit’s key staff members Julianne Birungi and Ibrahim El Sheikh to discuss its priority areas, which are education and the different types of violence perpetrated against children in Lebanon. A meeting with UNICEF Lebanon’s Social Media Officer, Sara Sandra Chehab also shed light on UNICEF’s work and media user statistics.


The team also met with Maurice Aaek, who is with the BBC Media Action in Lebanon, who provided an invaluable source of information relating to media consumption channels of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and in the region. Other meetings included Dr Nabil Dajani, the Acting Head of the American University in Beirut’s Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies as well as C4D pioneer in Lebanon, and Dr Dima Dabbous, Assistant Professor in Communication at the American University in Beirut. Topics discussed with Dr Dajani touched upon the importance of the burgeoning field of C4D in the Arab World and the significance of interpersonal communication channels such as ‘folk media’ – the dissemination of information through traditional modes of communication such as cultural and performance arts, in the development field especially in customary settings.

The discussion with Dr Dabbous centered on the representation of Syrian refugees, especially of women and girls in Lebanese media, which provided insight on possible stereotypes and prejudices about Syrians by the host community. The team also had the occasion to interview a prominent rap artist in Lebanon by the name of Nasser “Chyno” Shorbaji to learn of various cultural projects that are led by musicians and artists to bridge the widening gap between the different ethnic groups in Lebanon. These include the use of rap songs as expressions of freedom and hope by the youth of the region.

Although the visit was a short one, the team felt that it was an eye-opening experience that provided a firsthand account of the work of as well as the challenges faced by international and local organizations on site. The visit also imparted on the team strong impressions of the delicate convivial balance between the many groups in Lebanon but in particular between the host community and the refugee populations.

Yee-Yin Yap wrote the trip report with input from Abigail Leffler and the ComDev team.

In 2009, I embarked on the ComDev program at Malmö University, after chancing upon it on the Swedish University Admissions portal.
It was a huge leap of faith for me, as I had absolutely no prior knowledge about ComDev as a discipline, and especially what it offered as a career trajectory. But, it has proved to be a real-life changing and career-defining experience in more ways than one. My cohort was composed of some really amazing and talented individuals from different parts of the world who were – and still are – doing very relevant work in the international development field with notable organizations.  Their knowledge and experience helped shape my subsequent entry into communication, media and development work.
Prior to this, I had had a stint in banking (with an undergraduate degree in Banking and Finance) in my native country of Ghana. The off-campus structure of ComDev enabled me to concurrently obtain real-life development experience through internships and travel in Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana over the period. The degree most certainly impacted my landing my first postgraduate communications-related gig as a Communications Officer on the USAID-funded ICFG program in the Western Region of Ghana. Since then, the sky really has been the limit and I have worked as a science communicator, strategic communications specialist/consultant, copy editor and researcher with the likes of TJNA, Scriptoria UK, Kindling Strategy, Open Knowledge Foundation and Mekong Institute, and have had very rewarding experiences with these organizations at their bases in Kenya, UK, and Thailand respectively.

My ComDev Degree Project also inspired a deep interest in research, and in 2012 I gained a scholarship to undertake a PhD study into online newsmaking in the contexts of UK and South Africa, at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), Preston and which I successfully defended in March 2015. I was also able to do some research on open access and open data when I was awarded the prestigious Google Policy Fellowship in 2013.
Today, as a Program Director with Internews Network, and the Head of Communications of Contra Nocendi International, I get to fully utilize both the MA and PhD educations from Malmö University and UCLan towards supporting media development and advocacy in parts of Asia and Africa respectively. It is a good place to be professionally, and I’m very happy I took this chance back in 2009.
My special thanks go to the faculty team at ComDev and K3 for their noteworthy devotion and to the support of all ComDev students, which made it a real positive learning experience for me!

Alumna Sally Deffor spoke to our student assistant Yahneake Sterling.

More information about our MA programs and free-standing courses are also on the portal; the application deadline for autumn 2017 is 18 April, the Tuesday after the Easter holidays.

ComDev alumni interviews: Keeping the ComDev attitude 15 years after graduation

by Tobias Denskus March 20, 2017 Alumni

We always like to hear from our graduates about their ComDev study experience. We recently talked to three graduates with a connection to the UN system; this time, out student assistant Yahneake Sterling sat down with Rosita Ericsson, an alumna from the very first ComDev MA cohort! My name is Rosita Ericsson and I graduated […]

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ComDev alumni interviews: The UN experience

by Tobias Denskus September 28, 2016 Alumni

ComDev students and alumni are based around the world and work in many different fields where they apply their communication for development knowledge and skills. As the application round for the 1-year MA for spring 2017 is now open between 15 September and 15 October we asked three of our alumni to share reflections on […]

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Apply for ComDev’s autumn 2016 courses from 15 March-15 April!

by Tobias Denskus March 15, 2016 Alumni

Dear all, These are exciting times at ComDev! As the spring application window for ComDev programs and courses opens from 15 March – 15 April we have great educational opportunities lined up for you! First, the second round to apply to our flagship two-year part-time MA in Communication for Development is now open! You can […]

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ComDev anniversary event-News & Updates

by Tobias Denskus August 14, 2015 Alumni

Our ComDev 15th anniversary seminar is nicely taking shape and we would like to take the opportunity of returning from our summer vacation to share some updates with you. Below is the draft program for the 1.5 days in September. Our post from before the summer break outlines the rationale behind the seminar with some […]

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Celebrate 15 years of ComDev with us!

by Tobias Denskus May 22, 2015 Alumni

Dear students, alumni, colleagues & friends of ComDev Malmö! ComDev was founded in 2000 and we are celebrating the program’s 15th anniversary this year! We would like to take this opportunity to invite students, alumni, colleagues and friends of the program to a special 2-day event in Malmö on 18 & 19 September 2015. The […]

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ComDev alumni interviews: ComDev graduate completed her PhD

by Rebecca Bengtsson December 10, 2014 Alumni

Johanna Stenerson is one of the first ComDev graduates to complete their PhD. Johanna graduated from ComDev in 2006, and after having worked in Nicaragua as a programme analyst in a civil society organisation she was accepted for doctoral studies at Örebro University, Sweden. In November she defended her PhD thesis “Citizens in the Making. […]

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ComDev graduate Florencia Enghel defends her PhD thesis

by Rebecca Bengtsson December 8, 2014 Alumni

On 8 December, ComDev graduate and Glocal Times editor Florencia Enghel is defending her Phd thesis “Video letters, mediation and (proper) distance – A qualitative study of international development communication in practice” at Karlstad University. We’re wishing Florencia the best of luck for her defence! Florencia’s study scrutinizes the trajectory of an international development communication […]

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