Each university has its own internal standards. The are numerous forums in which faculty can participate with respect to setting standards for education of particular subjects, and each department may adopt standards of various organizations representing the particular academic and professional field.
Engineering programs are accredited by ABET (
www.abet.org)
ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that accredits college and university programs in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ABET accredits over 3,100 programs at more than 660 colleges and universities in 23 countries. ABET provides specialized, programmatic accreditation that evaluates an individual program of study, rather than evaluating an institution as a whole.
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http://www.abet.org/History/
There are numerous scientific/engineering/technical societies, many of which now have global reach, e.g., IEEE (
www.ieee.org) or ASM International (
www.asminternational.org), or ANSI (
www.ansi.org) or ASTM (
www.astm.org), and well as complementary international organizations, e.g., ISO.
There are organizations such as IUPAC (
www.iupac.org) and IUPAP (
www.iupap.org).
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) was established in 1922 in Brussels with 13 Member countries and the first General Assembly was held in 1923 in Paris.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) serves to advance the worldwide aspects of the chemical sciences and to contribute to the application of chemistry in the service of Mankind. As a scientific, international, non-governmental and objective body, IUPAC can address many global issues involving the chemical sciences.
IUPAC was formed in 1919 by chemists from industry and academia. Over nearly eight decades, the Union has succeeded in fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language. IUPAC has long been recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature, terminology, standardized methods for measurement, atomic weights and many other critically evaluated data. The Union continues to sponsor major international meetings that range from specialized scientific symposia to CHEMRAWN meetings with societal impact. During the Cold War, IUPAC became an important instrument for maintaining technical dialogue among scientists throughout the world.
There is the The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) (
www.iugg.org) and the American Geophysical Union (
www.agu.org).
There are numerous publishers, e.g., Reed-Elsevier (
www.reedelsevier.com), Knovel (why.knovel.com), Springer (
www.springer.com - now including Kluwer), McGraw-Hill, Pearson (Prentice-Hall), Wiley (including Blackwell), and numerous others which publish scientific, technical and trade journals and textbooks.
In general, it is up to the author to draft a text and revise as necessary. It is up to the individual university faculty member to determine what text, perhaps in conjunction with other facutly members, to select a text, and provide a syllabus and class notes to students.
New disccoveries may be introduced within a year or two or more depending on how urgent is a revision to a text. Professors may elect to provide copies of papers or citations as needed.
The basic fundamentals don't really change over a decade or decades. However, texts and courses do change as technology improves or replaces old technology. I dare say any modern text in computer science says much about punch tapes or punch cards.