Vice Chancellors Note

Professor Muhammad Sekandar Khan served the University of Chittagong for 38 years as a teacher. He moved through the ranks of an Assistant Professor to a Professor of Economics between 1967 and 2006. During his tenure in Chittagong University he served the Department of Economics as its Chairman from 1977 to 1980 and the faculty of Social Science from 1982 to 1984 as its Dean. He was conferred membership of the Association of Bangladesh Universities in 1988. He succeeded Professor Muhammad Yunus in 1980 as executive director of the Rural Economics Program (REP), a research cell of the department of Economics after the latter left the department for the field trial of the Grameen Bank Project of REP at the instance of Bangladesh Bank. He was appointed Project Director of the proposed Rangamati University of Science and Technology in 1999 and worked in the same project until 2002.

His teaching and research interest lies in areas of Development Planning, Labor Economics, Agricultural Input Distribution and Management of Open Access Resources especially the coastal and open water inland fisheries. He has authored eight monographs from CU, FF, WFC and Winrock International and published about a dozen articles in national and international journals. He led research teams in multi country studies and made presentation in international seminars in Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, Penang, Colombo and Albourg, Denmark. He visited 10 Universities throughout the USA as a member of the Leadership Exchange Program on a study tour of U.S. Universities in 1991. He was Vice President of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) and presently is the President of BEA, Chittagong Chapter. He was awarded BEA Gold Medal 2007 for lifetime achievement in teaching and research in Economics.