Rate My Professor Andrew Brennan

Dr. Andrew Brennan serves as a Senior Lecturer and the Undergraduate Major Lead for Economics in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Faculty of Business and Law at Curtin University. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Economics and Finance from Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, conferred by Council on December 4, 2009. Prior to his PhD, Brennan completed a Master of Philosophy thesis titled "The Impact of Oil Rent Dependence on Malaysian Manufacturing Sector: The Role of Financial Development and Government Intervention" at Curtin Malaysia. His research interests focus on getting to the root of problems in the social and natural worlds.

Brennan's scholarly contributions apply economic analysis to pressing issues. Key publications include "Elephant poaching & ivory trafficking problems in Sub-Saharan Africa: An application of O'Hara's principles of political economy to wildlife conservation," co-authored with J. Kalsi in 2015 while in the Department of Economics and Finance. He has advanced predictive methodologies in finance with works such as "Predicting Precious Metal Markets Using Custom Deep-Learning NARX Network: A Portfolio Application" and "Optimizing NARX-RNN Performance to Predict Precious Metal Futures market." Additionally, Brennan has published on pedagogical innovations, including "A students-as-partners-inspired approach to assessment rubric design," "Developing technical competency through cross-campus intercultural student collaboration: An undergraduate assessment," and "Building a Community of Practice in a Post-Pandemic World: A Work in Progress."

Awarded for outstanding teaching, Brennan won the Curtin Student Guild Excellence in Teaching Award for the Faculty of Business and Law in 2022 and 2025, with commendations in other years including 2023. He teaches units like ECON1000 Introductory Economics, ECON2007 Behavioural Economics and Public Policy, and co-teaches Markets and Legal Frameworks. Brennan facilitates workshops on inclusive assessment design, presents at the Year 12 ATAR Economics Conference on tackling multiple-choice questions, and supports the CORE economics curriculum implementation. As a registered research supervisor at Curtin University, he guides students in economics research.