Ideas with Impact
UNB Faculty of Management

It is hard to find any student in the faculty who hasn't taken a class from Robert Maher and really enjoyed it. From such courses as introduction to business to advanced accounting, for most students entering the program, Professor Maher is the first business professor they meet. There were several professors nominated this year for the faculty's Excellence in Teaching Award, but in the end it was Robert Maher and his commitment to going above and beyond to help students, that received the honour.

Professor Maher winning this year's award is no surprise for second year accounting student, Leslie Hinton. She remarks, "He puts a lot of time into his class, and you can tell by how prepared he is. On top of that he really seems to enjoy what he teaches, and that makes the whole experience better for everyone".

The faculty created the award many years ago to support faculty excellence in teaching. Each year, the faculty honours one professor for his or her outstanding teaching performance. The choice of the award recipient belongs to the students. At the end of each academic year students in the BBA and MBA programs nominate the professor who they feel is most deserving of the Award. A committee of current BBA and MBA students, plus an alumni representative, then selects the winner from among the nominees. Robert Maher is an accounting professor, and has been with the Faculty of Business Administration since 1988.

This isn't the first time that Maher has won the award: the faculty previously recognized him in 2003 with a teaching award, and in 2004 the university recognized his contributions with a UNB Merit Award. While remembering his first year and how much of an impact professor Maher has had on him, fourth year entrepreneurship student, Kyle McDowell commented, "When I first came to the university, I thought I had a good understanding of the fundamentals of business, but I never had a true appreciation for it until I took Professor Maher's intro to business class. He made the entire class want to get involved. We would read news articles each and every day just so we would be able to discuss them in detail for the next class. Sometimes half our classes would be spent just discussing the week's top issues."