Tony Burke

Tony Burke is a Principal Lecturer in Construction at the University of Westminster and, since 2017, he has also had institution-wide responsibilities within the University's Centre for Teaching Innovation. Prior to becoming a lecturer, he enjoyed a varied career in the construction industry, working in both the private and public sectors, and becoming professionally qualified as a Chartered Building Surveyor. Tony has has had extensive involvement in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in construction and surveying. For ten years he led the Construction Studies Undergraduate Programme at the University of Westminster, comprising five professionally-accredited honours degree pathways with over 500 students, around 50% of whom are part-time. Impact of work His academic practice focuses on supporting students in a holistic way by designing a framework within which learning can take place, integrating learning resources, harnessing the power of digital technologies, and promoting collaboration. His contribution to teaching and supporting learning, and innovative uses of technology have been recognised by his institution, colleagues and students. He received a University Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching in 2009, and a University Teaching Fellowship in 2014. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Tony maintains a commitment to the built environment academic community through participation in the 'Innovation in Built Environment Education' (iBEE) Conference. This is the pre-eminent national conference focused on learning and teaching in the built environment, and he has presented at five of the past six conferences, receiving prizes for his presentations in 2015 and 2016. Between 2014 and 2016 he led a University-wide project called 'Transforming Learning and Teaching'. Amongst numerous project deliverables, Tony developed a new University Learning and Teaching Strategy, and designed the framework for the establishment of Westminster Learning Communities. He jointly developed the Universitys first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Digital Construction in 2016, which attracted over 1000 registrations globally and received the Premier Award for Innovation in Education and Training from the Chartered Institute of Building. Plans for the future Tony is currently working towards a PhD in Higher Education Research at Lancaster University. The research for his thesis will investigate the nature and extent of support that course teams require in curriculum design.