Dr Chris Keane, an economics graduate of Sydney University, has been teaching and researching in the higher education sector for more than 12 years.

He has taught widely in the field of social sciences, including Australian political economy, economic history, human resource management and industrial relations.

Dr Chris Keane at work (Photography by Kosta Korsovitis)

In 1997, he began part-time tutoring and lecturing at the University of New South Wales. He went on to teach at Sydney University and spent several years lecturing in human resource management and industrial relations at the University of Western Sydney.

In 2005, Dr Keane was appointed as a full-time lecturer in business economics at CQUniversity Sydney.

"Now is a great time to be lecturing in economics in view of the global financial crisis.

"I feel privileged to be able to pass on my knowledge to international students who mostly come from emerging market economies. How developing Asian Pacific economies grow and allocate productive resources between national investment and consumption are vital questions," he says.

Dr Keane's knowledge of economics and business is not purely academic. He once worked as a delivery driver for his sister's suburban florist business.

"It was a practical exercise for learning about microeconomic issues of market competition, pricing, profits and customer behaviour."

Nor is he a novice in the international business world. As Senior Research Officer with the NSW Parliamentary Committee on State Development he gathered evidence from Australia's overseas investment commissioners and tax industry experts to write a report on factors influencing the relocation of regional headquarters of overseas corporations to NSW.

Dr Keane has made a significant contribution to the academic profession and CQUniversity. As well as teaching and coordinating undergraduate and diploma courses in economics he finds time to promote the international arm of the university by writing feature articles for the on-line publication, CQUniversity News.

In 2008, he had a peer reviewed article on ICT investment and Australia's economic boom published in the Journal of Australian Political Economy.

Dr Keane has attended and presented research papers at several academic conferences and in 2009 acted as stream chair at an International Business and Economics Conference, held in Thailand.

In 2009, he was appointed adjunct Research Fellow with the International Education Research Centre. Together with Associate Professor R.E. Harreveld, he is currently supervising Kevin Gould's PhD research on a new financing model for Victoria's senior secondary education system.

Dr Keane is also engaged in researching the political economy of the international student market in Australia and evaluating the differing sources of quantitative data published on international student numbers.