• 7/7/2016

TUM and National University of Singapore start new entrepreneurship exchange program

Semester abroad complete with start-up internship

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are about to start an exceptional exchange program: students will attend an entrepreneurship seminar at their host university for one semester while completing an internship with a start-up company at the same time. With this scheme, the two universities support students who wish to develop both their entrepreneurial and intercultural competencies. Recently, two high-ranking Singaporean politicians visited Munich and Garching to see how TUM fosters entrepreneurship.

Skyline of Singapore
Students are given the opportunity to explore how business is done in Singapore. (Photo: istockphoto)

The new exchange program is open to students from the TUM School of Management. Students are given the unique opportunity to explore how business is done in a different cultural environment, learn from top-class economists and build first business contacts in one of the world's most important trade locations during their six-month stay.

The exchange program is part of the “NUS Overseas College Program (NOC)”, a scheme under which the National University of Singapore (NUS) also cooperates with the universities of Stanford and Tel Aviv, or the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology, to name but a few. NUS and TUM have already been working in close cooperation for 15 years; their cooperation includes research, the study course program of TUM Asia, TUM's Singapore-based campus, and other exchange programs.

Singaporean politicians learn about “Industry 4.0” and Munich’s start-up landscape

TUM is strengthening its bonds with Singapore in the area of entrepreneurship not only with the new program: Singapore’s Minister of Industry, Mr. S Iswaran, today saw for himself how research results in the so-called “Industry 4.0” impact on the real economy, and how TUM cooperates with businesses and non-university research institutions in this area.

Only two weeks prior to this, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Dr. Koh Poh Koon, had visited the Entrepreneurship Center of TUM and UnternehmerTUM. During his visit, he met with start-up founders and experienced the extent of TUM’s role in the start-up scene of greater Munich firsthand. The Entrepreneurship Center provides advice, training and infrastructure support for spin-offs founded by scientists and students. The four professorships of the Entrepreneurship Research Institute – which coordinates the new exchange program – research and teach at the same center.

Singapore and Munich – two metropolitan cities with a thriving start-up scene

Singapore and Munich are known as highly dynamic and innovative economic centers, while NUS and TUM have made a name for fostering entrepreneurial spirit. In Singapore, the start-up culture has grown rapidly over the last decade. The Economist has recently described the city's start-up quarter as “the world’s most tightly packed entrepreneurial ecosystem”. The high-tech metropolis of Munich, too, is seeing the development of a thriving start-up culture alongside established global corporations. Both the government of the city state of Singapore and the Bavarian government support start-ups venturing into international markets.

NUS and TUM have been instrumental in encouraging an increasing number of students to consider starting their own business. Some 800 new businesses have been founded by TUM scientists and students since 1990, resulting in around 14,000 new jobs. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Entrepreneurship Center an exemplary model for the whole nation during a visit last year.

More information:

Further information about the program will shortly be available here

TUM's exchange programs

Entrepreneurship at TUM

Technical University of Munich

Corporate Communications Center

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