Dr. Alex Faseruk

By Aimee Sheppard
For more than 20 years, Memorial finance professor Dr. Alex Faseruk has dedicated his time and energy to helping each student get the most out of their academic careers. Now that investment in education has earned him a prestigious 3M Teaching Fellowship.

Dr. Faseruk was one of eight recipients across the country to be awarded a 3M Teaching Fellowship June 12 in Vancouver, B.C., at the annual conference of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The award recognizes excellence in teaching over an extended period of time, principally at the undergraduate level and also acknowledges leadership in commitment to the improvement of university teaching within the candidate's own institution.

“Dr. Faseruk excels in all dimensions of scholarly activity, both in the university and the community, and has made a significant contribution in the areas of curriculum development, teaching materials, and faculty development and support,” said Dr. Evan Simpson, vice-president (academic).

Dr. Faseruk has been a faculty member at Memorial since 1981 and has been consistently recognized for the excellence of his teaching, his personal interest in his students and his high academic standards. He is known among business students as a demanding professor but one who has a gift for making finance interesting and bringing out the best in students.

“Without a doubt, having Dr. Faseruk as a professor has directly contributed to my professional success,” said Jennifer Dicks, former business student at Memorial. “Dr. Faseruk understands how to help his students deal with the challenges they face while in school and, perhaps more importantly, he does his best to prepare them for the many challenges they will face in their careers.”

Dr. Faseruk has been involved in numerous activities at Memorial, sharing both his professional knowledge and interest in teaching. For the past 16 years, he has coached business case competition teams at the graduate and undergraduate levels and has helped Memorial achieve the best record among Canadian case team competitors. He was also a strong leader in helping the faculty achieve international accreditation through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

He is the director for Memorial’s master of oil and gas studies program, acting director of the master of employment relations program, and is acting as the Faculty of Business Administration’s associate dean academic. He was a recipient of the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Memorial University in 1989 and received the National Post’s Leaders in Management Education Award in 1999. He has also received several awards from students and graduating classes.

This is the fourth time that faculty of Memorial University have been honoured with this award; the other recipients were Professor Shane O’Dea in 2002, Dr. Michael Collins in 1998, and Dr. Penny Hansen in 1990.