What Tobias says about the Master's in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Tobias from Sweden

What year did you graduate?

"I graduated from the DRMCCA programme in 2018."

What is your current job and where is it located?

"City-wide safety and preparedness coordinator for Malmö stad, Sweden."

How did you find your job and how long did it take?

"I applied through the municipality’s website. Since the job required a security clearance, the process was longer. It was also an even longer process due to various reasons, but generally, it takes 3-5 months from application to starting date."

Favourite thing about your job?

"The connections with everyone. I am privileged to work both within the city organisation, and the city as a whole and to represent the city at regional, national and, at times, international levels. So, I get to meet a bunch of smart people who can help me grow and learn.

It also helps that we are a great unit where everyone is driven to make a change for the better. We have a lot of fun together, even when working with tight deadlines and important matters."

How are you changing the industry or the world (in a large or small way)?

"Since Malmö is the third largest municipality in Sweden, whenever there are new laws or regulations to be created on a national level we are asked to assist. So, I am able to influence some on the national system level.

Simultaneously, I coordinate the safety and security coordinators within the city and through them I can help the citizens, employees and visitors of Malmö and our facilities be and feel safe. We are all striving to make our part of the world both to be and feel safe. The citizens of Malmö have some 180+ languages as their native tongue, so in some sense, if “you have seen Malmö, you have seen the world” as our city slogan was a while ago."

What was especially useful about the programme that you use in your everyday work?

"I think I use most courses. But especially useful was that the programme challenged me to think critically and challenge my preconceptions and collaborate with people from a vast variety of backgrounds. In my class of 20, we were 14 nationalities and I think two or four people had a similar educational background. That helps me today as I am part of coordinating safety and security spanning from a library and a home for the elderly to schools and streets."

What do you miss most from your time at Lund University/The Faculty of Engineering? What were the highlights of your time at Lund?

"Programme mates and the educational staff. I learned much from both of them in interactions in class and outside of class. Everyone I met had an aura of humility around them, trying to learn from each other and everyone was dedicated to making their (future) part of the world, be it on international, national, local or any other level."

What was the focus of your thesis?

"I studied social vulnerability indices and suggested a method for applying that at a sub-municipal level in Sweden. A fancy way of saying that I looked into how a set of statistical indicators might be used to learn something about how prepared the population is in a certain part of a municipality. This in turn could influence how we speak about, plan and execute preparedness. For instance, it might be more important to make sure there are busses for evacuation in areas where car ownership is low, or to say that everyone should have food for seven days might be difficult in areas where the population can barely afford food for one day."

Why do you think prospective students should choose the DRMCCA programme?

"I found it to be engaging, interesting and a perfect combination between theory and application. The faculty has a good combination of experience from reality and theoretical frameworks. The DRMCCA also manage to gather an engaged student body that will broaden your understanding of the world."

Do you have any advice for prospective students coming to Lund?

"When you are there, make sure to engage and build as many relationships and networks as you can. That will help you once you leave. A municipality in Canada, Sweden and Indonesia are surprisingly similar in their challenges."