Dr. Munir Quddus
Associate Provost of the Prairie View A&M University Northwest Houston Center
Dr. Munir Quddus serves as dean of the College of Business (COB) at Prairie View A&M University. He has served as dean and professor of economics in the COB since fall 2001. Under his leadership, the college received initial accreditation with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) in 2006 and was successful in the maintenance of accreditation in 2011 and 2016. Accreditation with AACSB is a hallmark of excellence attained by less than 10 percent of the business schools globally.
During Dr. Quddus’ tenure as dean, the college has attained a number of milestones including, substantial growth in student enrollment, especially at the graduate level; an increase in the quality of faculty, with a sharp increase in high quality research publications, faculty receiving nearly $2 million in grant funding for research and outreach, including from the National Science Foundation and Homeland Security; an increase in new programs – Master of Science in accounting, online Master of Business Administration (MBA), and an Executive MBA, a doctoral program is under works; new minors in supply chain, real estate and financial planning; a move to a new building (2015); a strong Advisory Board; and two centers to engage the community – the Small Business Development Center and the Center for International Business Research.
Dr. Quddus is sought out for his expertise in economic development, history of economic ideas and macroeconomics. His teaching interests include Ethics and Leadership, and the History of Economic Ideas. His book published in 2000, with a study on entrepreneurs in the multi-billion-dollar garment export industry of Bangladesh, has led to interviews with National Public Radio’s Planet Money and an article published in The New York Times.
A native of Bangladesh, Dr. Quddus earned his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University. He has worked in higher education for nearly 30 years teaching at the University of Southern Indiana, the Economic Institute in Boulder, Colorado, Vanderbilt University, and the North South University – the first private university in Bangladesh which he helped in the startup phase as it chief academic officer (1993).
Dr. Quddus is president of the Bangladesh Development Initiative – a research think tank and policy advocacy group – and recently served on an expert panel at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Bangladesh Studies, a scholarly journal devoted to studies on Bangladesh.