Construction Education: Past, Present, and Future
Richard Burt trained and qualified as a Chartered Building Surveyor in the UK. He holds a Masters degree in Construction Management and a Ph.D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University. He began his academic career in 1988 in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States in 1996. Starting his US academic career at Texas A&M University in 2000, he advanced to become the James C. Smith Endowed Professor in Construction Science and served as both Undergraduate coordinator and Assistant Department Head. While at A&M, he established his expertise in construction history and the survey and documentation of historic buildings. He has worked on several building documentation projects in the US and France. He has published in numerous journals and conference proceedings and was a principal investigator in a multi-year federally funded project to investigate the building remains at the historic D-Day landing site at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy.
He is currently the McWhorter Endowed Chair & Head of the McWhorter School of Building Science at Auburn University in Alabama, a position he has held since 2008. He served as the chair of an American Council for Construction Education task force to develop learning outcomes-based standards for construction education, and in this capacity, he conducted data-gathering workshops with industry around the United States. He served on the Board of Directors of the AGC Education and Research Foundation and the Board of Trustees of the American Council for Construction Education. Dr. Burt also serves as the co-coordinator of the International Council for Building (CIB) Working Group WG089 – Education in the Built Environment. In this capacity, he has organized workshops and paper sessions at conferences in England, Canada, the United States, Finland, and Australia.
As a former international student, the candidate knows the value of studying internationally. At Texas A&M & Auburn Universities, he established and grew international study programs, being some of the first construction programs to do this. At Auburn, he has championed student engagement in high-impact educational experiences such as study away/abroad, competition team participation & community service learning. In recognition of his outstanding service to construction education, in 2025, he was recognized as a Faculty Fellow by the Associated Schools of Construction and elevated into the National Academy of Construction.