Urquiola Re-Appointed Vice Dean for Academic Affairs

Miguel Urquiola, an associate professor at SIPA and in Columbia’s Department of Economics, will serve as SIPA’s vice dean for academic affairs for another year, Dean Merit Janow announced on July 8.

Urquiola has served in the position, which is responsible for faculty recruitment and faculty development, since July 1, 2012, when he assumed office on a temporary basis pending the arrival of a permanent dean of SIPA. Following Janow’s recent appointment, Urquiola has agreed to return to the office for the 2013-14 academic year.

 “I am grateful to Miguel for his willingness to continue in this important role at SIPA,” Janow wrote in a message to faculty and staff. “Please join me in thanking Miguel for his terrific work this past year and his willingness to continue as vice dean in the year ahead.”

Urquiola spoke about the importance of faculty when he accepted the position in 2012. “SIPA’s faculty are at the heart of this school — they are essential to our global public policy mission of teaching, research, and service.  I look forward to collaborating with [the dean] to continue building our incomparable faculty, and to create a positive environment for faculty and students alike.”

An economist by training, Urquiola is a core faculty member in Economic and Political Development at SIPA and a scholar of education policy in the developing world, especially in Latin America. He studies educational markets, with a focus on the effects of school choice on stratification and school quality.

The vice dean joined the Columbia faculty in 2003 and became an associate professor in 2009. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources, with prior appointments at the Russell Sage Foundation, Cornell University’s economics department, the World Bank’s research department, the government of Bolivia, and the Bolivian Catholic University. He holds a BA from Swarthmore College and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.