Professor Sean Hennessey, who teaches at the UPEI School of Business Administration, has released the second edition of his popular textbook, Principles of Corporate Finance, which he co-authored with Dr. Lawrence Gitman, a professor of finance at San Diego University. The first edition, published by Pearson Education Canada, a division of Prentice Hall, is currently being used in undergraduate and graduate programs across Canada.

"UPEI is proud that Dr. Hennessey's textbook has been so successful that it necessitated a second edition. I am confident that the new edition will provide business students throughout Canada and the United States with a valuable resource in the area of corporate finance, given the combined expertise of Dr. Hennessey and Dr. Gitman," says UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan.

Principles of Corporate Finance presents concepts, techniques, and practices that students require to make corporate financial decisions in a competitive, global business environment. The new book incorporates a proven teaching/learning system that integrates pedagogy with concepts and practical applications. It has been updated to present current and emerging issues and techniques that affect the practice of financial management. Clear writing and generous use of examples make the textbook an easily accessible resource for students of all abilities.

"The desire to write this textbook came out of my experience teaching introductory corporate finance," says Dr. Hennessey. "Students want a book written in plain English that ties concepts to reality. They also want demonstrations of financial concepts, tools, and techniques, not just abstract descriptions. I wanted to provide students with a book that met these goals and which clearly presents the principles of Canadian corporate finance in an engaging, easy-to-read, and understandable style."

Principles of Corporate Finance is Professor Hennessey's second book. His first book, Principles of Managerial Finance, also co-authored with Dr. Gitman, was published in 2003.

"It's exciting to see the second edition being published. Both books have done remarkably well. It's a challenging market in which to get published by the major textbook publishing houses," notes Roberta MacDonald, Dean of Business. "Professor Hennessey's efforts and success are indicative of the high quality of our professors and the calibre of education offered here at the School of Business Administration."

Sean Hennessey teaches in the areas of Corporate Finance, Investment Management, Business Research, and Personal Finance. He has taught at UPEI since 1984.

Educators from across Atlantic Canada will meet in Charlottetown next month for the Atlantic Educators Conference, an annual event taking place October 25-27th at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel. The theme of this year’s conference is Embracing Diversity in Canadian Education Communities.

This is the first time that a university faculty of education has partnered with a community college to host the conference, which will focus on research related to diversity in its many forms and how the needs of diverse student populations can be addressed. The conference will also highlight collaborative research between universities and colleges.

Participants will have the opportunity to hear an impressive line-up of speakers, including Dr. Kathleen Flanagan, Coordinator, Adult Learning Centre, Canadian Council on Learning; Al McNutt, Chairperson, Northern AIDS Connection Society; Dr. Jim Cummins, Canada Research Chair, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto; and Candy Palmater, activist, advocate for the rights of aboriginal peoples, lawyer, and comedian.

Additionally, there will be workshops on how to write successful grant proposals, how to develop teaching tools for diverse classrooms, how to teach students to develop their metacognitive skills; a leadership panel discussion of collaborative research between universities and colleges; and a presentation of examples of successful collaborative efforts. There are also more than 35 concurrent sessions running over the three days of the conference.

"This conference has been a huge success in attracting colleagues from throughout Atlantic Canada and elsewhere, as we continue to put PEI on the map as an education destination," said Wade MacLauchlan, president of the University of Prince Edward Island.

Brian McMillan, president of Holland College, said the conference provides educators with an excellent opportunity to meet with colleagues from other institutions to exchange information about their research.

“Today’s colleges and universities are finding a number of creative ways to collaborate, such as research, student transfers, credentialing, and additional student services, which are having significant results for post-secondary learners. This conference offers professionals from post-secondary institutions the opportunity to explore the potential for further such collaborations.”

The full conference rate is $200, which includes a reception on Thursday, a banquet on Friday, Saturday breakfast and lunch, and all health breaks. Partial and student rates are also available. To find out more about the Atlantic Educators Conference program, and for registration, and accommodation information, visit www.upei.ca/~aec07, e-mail aec@upei.ca, phone Sandra at UPEI: 902-566-0731 or Veronica at Holland College: 902-566-9570.

Wade Sweet, a fourth year doctor of veterinary medicine student at the Atlantic Veterinary College at UPEI, was recently awarded an International Stockmen's Educational Foundation Travel Fellowship enabling him to participate in the 2007 International Livestock Congress in Calgary, Alberta on October 2. Sweet, who is from O'Leary, was one of 20 students representing 16 universities from four countries to receive the highly sought after fellowship. Scholastic achievement, leadership experiences and letters of recommendation are all part of the stringent qualifying requirements for the fellowship.

The International Stockmen's Educational Foundation partners with well established livestock events and organizations to further its mission to build global beef networks and focus on the emerging issues and challenges facing the beef industry from an international perspective. Through participation in the International Livestock Congress, students are provided with the opportunity to interact with world industry leaders and contribute to the solutions that will shape the advancement of the livestock industry into the next millennium. Following his experience in Calgary, Sweet will write a professional paper to be
submitted to the International Stockmen's Educational Foundation Board.

In addition to being the recipient of this prestigious travel fellowship, Sweet was recently awarded the Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island Award and The Bessie B. and J. Derril White Memorial Award during the Atlantic Veterinary College's annual Fall Awards and
Recognition Night.

Good news for current and prospective students at the University of Prince Edward Island. UPEI tuition fees for Canadian and international students are below the national average. UPEI has the lowest tuition fees in the Maritime provinces, according to Statistics Canada.

Statistics Canada released its annual survey of tuition fees for full-time students attending Canadian universities, on October 18. The survey, which was administered from April to June 2007, included 102 post-secondary degree-granting institutions this year, up from 60 last year.

It indicates that tuition fees paid by UPEI students in the 2007/2008 academic year declined by 9.8 per cent. Only one other province showed a decline in undergraduate tuition. The average tuition paid by full-time undergraduate students attending UPEI is $4,440, below the national average of $4,524. Full-time graduate students at UPEI paid $2,750, well below the national average of $5,447.

Prince Edward Island was one of only two provinces that did not show an increase in tuition fees for international students. At UPEI, international students paid just $8,760, in contrast to the national average of $13,985.

The lower tuition fees are considered an important factor in the increased numbers of students coming to UPEI from out of province. Full and part-time students transferring from other universities increased by 60.5 per cent this year. UPEI has 23 per cent more first-year students coming from New Brunswick than last year, and double the number of students from Nova Scotia. As well the number of international students attending UPEI this year rose by 4.1 per cent over last year.

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For more information about the Statistics Canada tuition survey, visit

For the second year running, UPEI mathematics students brought home top prizes from the Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences' 31st annual Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Conference held in Fredericton, New Brunswick recently.

Hosted by the University of New Brunswick this year, the annual conference brings together top math, statistics and computer science students from Atlantic Canada universities to present their research to peers and faculty.

Math student Zachariah Likely, of Charlottetown, took top prize for the "Best Mathematics Talk." Likely is a fourth year student majoring in mathematics who has plans to pursue graduate studies next year. He presented his work on the classification of high dimensional data using wavelets.

The team of Mostafa Fatehi and Jonathan Murley, both of Charlottetown, tied for second in the mathematics competition. Fatehi is a third year student interested in mathematical physics, while Murley is a second year student majoring in math. Both students plan to return to the conference next year and look forward to the opportunity to compete for first place.

"The UPEI Department of Mathematics & Statistics faculty members are proud of their students and congratulate them on a job very well done," says department chair Dr. Dan Ryan.

Dr. Christian Lacoix, Dean of Science, is not surprised that UPEI students did so well in the competition.

"Our math program is top-notch," he says. "There is a real sense of community in that department. Students work one-on-one with faculty to develop their skills and knowledge. We are very proud of them all."

The University of Prince Edward Island takes centre stage at Calgary’s Glencoe Club on Saturday, November 3, when the Friends of UPEI gather to celebrate their university! This year’s event includes a fabulous dinner, a live and a silent auction, and music and stories by Hedgerow, one of P.E.I.'s best-known entertainment troupes.

Since the Friends of UPEI began in 1998, the group has raised over $600,000 for scholarships for students attending UPEI, invested through the Calgary Foundation that funds UPEI scholarships and bursaries in perpetuity. Since its beginning, the group has awarded almost $150,000 in scholarships to students attending UPEI.

Anyone interested in more information about the Friends of UPEI in Calgary should contact Kevin Lewis, Advancement Services, (902) 894-2888 or krlewis@upei.ca.

What some of our 2007 scholarship winners say about UPEI:

I came to UPEI because I wanted to attend a smaller university. I figured it would be a great opportunity to go to the Maritimes because I love the Island. I am glad I chose UPEI because f the small class sizes. You are not just a number to professors; they really care about your learning.-- Amy Hennebery, third-year English and Chemistry

Having been born and raised in Calgary, I chose UPEI because I wanted nothing more than to escape the huge city and live somewhere nice and quiet and small and peaceful. In the summer of my grade 11 year, my family travelled to PEI as part of a Maritime holiday, and I instantly fell in love with the Island. I decided right then that that was where I wanted to go to university. Four years later, I am still enamored with the Island. -- Caitlin Vavasour-Williams, fourth-year Biology (environmental ecology and wildlife conservation)

My mother is an alumna here and she really liked the idea of me attending UPEI. Initially I chose the school because of the small class sizes, which sounded perfect to me. I also have some family here, so a chance to be close to my grandmother was also very tempting. Now that I’m here, I choose to stay because of the small campus, great people, and excellent professors. All in all, it is just a great school! -- Joey Greco, second-year Business

Sponsored research income at the University of Prince Edward Island totalled $12.7 million in 2006, up a substantial 30.1 per cent over the previous year. UPEI's research accomplishments have placed the University in seventh position out of 20 primarily undergraduate universities across the country. It is the only university from the Maritimes that ranked in the top ten of the undergraduate category.

The figures have just been published in Canada's Top 50 Research Universities List 2007 prepared by Research Infosource Inc., Canada's premier source of R&D information. The report is based on statistics from 69 universities across the country.

"The Research Infosource report is a public way of recognizing what researchers, administrators, graduates, and students at UPEI already know: that our University has become a significant player in the development of new knowledge in our province, our region, and across Canada," says Dr. Katherine Schultz, Vice-President, Research Development at UPEI. "Our students and faculty are engaged in dynamic research projects that really matter to our society."

Researchers at UPEI are exploring a multitude of issues that touch us all, including human and animal health, milk quality, literacy and learning, small islands, watershed integrity, and the development and health of children and youth. They are contributing to discoveries related to school health, immigration, stroke, infectious diseases in marine life, cultural engagement, invasive species, animal movement, “green” chemistry,” and learning in a virtual environment.

Once again the University of Prince Edward Island has placed in the top ten of the country's 21 primarily undergraduate universities. UPEI was eighth overall in the annual Maclean’s rankings which were released today, November 8. This is the fifth year in a row that UPEI has been in the top ten.

Maclean’s magazine introduced a new method of collecting data this year causing some universities to drop significantly in the rankings while others have remained within one or two places of their 2006 results.

In the undergraduate category, UPEI placed fourth in Canada for its student-faculty ratio, fifth for student awards, and fifth for awards per full-time faculty. Among the nine Maritime undergraduate universities that were ranked, UPEI was in fourth position overall.

“We are very pleased to rank once again among the top ten in Canada,” says Dr. Vianne Timmons, Vice-President of Academic Development. “The Maclean’s report also included the results from the National Study of Student Engagement and they are even more encouraging because they are based on what university students really think about their educational experiences.”

The Maclean’s report drew attention to the level of satisfaction recorded by UPEI’s senior students in the National Study of Student Engagement (NSSE). UPEI was recognized as one of three notable exceptions to a national trend for students to become less supportive of their universities after completing their studies.

At UPEI, 87 per cent of students stated that they would select the same university again if they had the opportunity to start their degrees over. These figures are significantly above the North American benchmarks for student satisfaction. Ninety-one per cent of senior year students evaluated their experience as either good or excellent and they gave UPEI top marks in the country for student-faculty interaction.

The Maclean’s report also provided information about the composition of the student body at each university. The statistics reflected the increasingly diverse nature of the UPEI student community. 17.3 per cent of students came from out of province in 2006 and 8.7 per cent came from other countries.