Providing a Large Pool of Intellectual Capital - A Leading University and Research Town

Providing a Large Pool of Intellectual Capital ” A Leading University and Research Town

The Munich region's quality and the quantity of a highly skilled work force are considered its key success factor. Its higher educational institutions, which include the renowned Technical University of Munich, ^[4] currently educate some 30,000 engineers , mathematicians, and other scientists. When comparing Munich with the rest of Germany, as well as with other leading high-tech regions around the world, this number represents Germany's largest talent pool and the second largest in the world after Silicon Valley (see Figure 10-2). Furthermore, the prestigious research organizations of the Max Planck Institutes and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft ^[5] both operate their national headquarters in Munich.

Figure 10-2. International comparison of regional talent pools: number of students.

Source: Bain & Company, 2001.

Bavaria currently has a capacity for 3,000 first- term students in software programming, which was recently increased from 2,500 by a government investment of approximately $30 million. This, together with the construction of a new building for the programming and mathematics departments of the Technical University on its research campus in Garching, close to Munich, indicates the dawn of an era of intensified research within these fields.