“It's a sort of lifestyle”. Inger Munk on retiring from the Mundus Programme

Inger Munk was among the founder of the Erasmus Mundus Masters in Journalism, Media and Globalisation, back in 2003. Since then, she has been in charge of coordinating the consortium, keeping contacts with the European Union and taking care of the international aspect of the Programme. Now, after 20 years, she just retired. We spoke with her about how it all started and how the Programme has changed over these two decades.

Hi Inger, how are things there?

Well they are fine. But of course, it's a mixed feeling. It's a great to have the [current Mundus Journalism] cohort here in Aarhus, they are about to move to their second year specialism now. But for me it's unbelievable, I'll never really leave the Mundus Programme, of course, this is one of my babies. I have been working in international higher education for 27 years. So, it's quite a long time.

Can you describe what have you been doing for the Mundus?

I have the pleasure of being one of the founders, together with Hans Henrik Holm, of the Mundus Programme. It goes ways back to 2003, when we put together the network and we started with the first application.

My role in the consortium, right from the beginning, was to take care of the application to the European Union, and then also being networking at all levels: we have the local level in Aarhus, with the cooperation between Aarhus University and DMJX. And then, of course, we have a cooperation network at the consortium level, but also, even more broad, with all the students around the globe. So, in that way, we operate at the local, national, and international level. My role was first to put together the consortium and then also being the contact point with the EU. I've been doing that together with my other work for the Danish School of Media and Journalism, at the international department.

How would you say that, since 2003, the Programme has changed?

Well, the partners changed but the people involved also changed, so that we’ve always been able to conduct the most recent research. But I think the core values, they are still there. And this is also why we talk about the “Mundus family”. This has been quite right from the beginning, that we've had this very close group (of both staff, students and alumni) where we worked all together, to seek what’s the best for the development of global journalism. We always wanted to offer the best. And that’s why the Programme expects the best from the students.

And what do you think was the biggest challenge and what was the biggest achievement in these almost...?

20 years almost. The first group started in 2005. The biggest achievement has been that...Uh, when you look at these alumni, prospective journalists all around the world, you get so happy. So, the biggest achievement has been promoting the development of journalism on a global scale. We created a community where everyone collaborated with each other. I know it's a phrase to say, but I think that, most really feel like they are part of this.

The biggest challenge has always been how to manoeuvrer with different [universities’, national and EU] rules. We have always been working in a way that ‘everything is possible until the opposite is proved’, because otherwise you couldn't work with this model. And I also think the family model also goes back to that, everybody has been very engaged in this and they also used a lot of their free time, so it became sort of a hobby. I'm not sure that our own families are so happy with the Mundus, if it’s taking too much time [laughs, ndr]. It's a sort of lifestyle, you can say.