Accountancy professor voted top lecturer at Albany

Accountancy professor Jill Hooks has broken a six-year hold her male counterparts at Albany have had on the students' association Lecturer of the Year awards.

Professor Hooks won the award from 111 staff nominated and voted for by students.

Previous winners have all been men: Dr John Tan last year, Dr Peter Kay in 2009, Dr Felix Ram in 2007 and 2008, Mark Werman in 2006 and Dr Chris Scogings in 2005.

Professor Hooks says she is thrilled to be the first woman to take out the title in the popular event organised by the Albany Students’ Association. She also won the award for favourite lecture in the College of Business. She began teaching in 1968 at Feilding Agricultural High School, then taught at Selwyn College in Auckland and at the Auckland University of Technology, before doing a Bachelor of Business Studies extramurally at Massey followed by a Master of Management Studies and a PhD both from University. She has worked at Massey since 1997.

“I’m lucky because my teaching interest – financial accounting – is also my research interest so my research provides insights and stories for my teaching,” Professor Hooks says. “I like to tell stories about accounting – often court cases of creative accounting. This enables me to bring in discussion of business ethics in terms of accounting practice.”

Because accounting is "case-based" it is easy to have an interactive teaching approach, she says. She also likes to be readily available for students needing assistance.

Association student advocacy coordinator Penny Lyall told the lunchtime awards presentation ceremony on Friday “there is nothing tokenistic in these awards. They are an authentic appreciation of your efforts.”

Student comments are displayed as part of the presentation, including memorably enthusiastic ones such as science lecturer described as “freakin’, geekin’ great!”

Ms Lyall said last year's winner, Dr Tan, had told her that as a result of a Massey News article republished in the North Shore Times mentioning his work campaigning to raise money for medicines and clean water wells for poverty-stricken villages in Cambodia, the Milford Rotary Club contacted him and helped fundraise for 100 new wells, making a difference to the lives of around 5000 Cambodians.

As well as certificates for each nominee, cups were awarded to those with the most votes from each college. Other college awards went to Eric Thompson (College of Creative Arts); Dr Sally Clendon (College of Education); Dr Graeme McRae (College of Humanities and Social Sciences), Dr Gabi Schmidt-Adam and Dr Frederick Lam (College of Sciences), Claire Goode and Penny Raine (Centre for Professional and Continuing Education), and Pete France and Trudy Lile (NZ School of Music).