A Survey of Credit Hour Requirements in BS Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering ABET Accredited Programs

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a sampling and analysis of today’s ABET accredited Bachelor’s Degree Programs in Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical engineering curricula. U.S. programs submitting ABET reports in 2015, were polled for their Table 5.1 data. The sampled programs were examined for total credit hours and credit hours in each of the following categories: math and science, engineering, general education, and other. While there has been considerable discussion nationally about a trend to reduce credit hour requirements and on how credit hours can/should be distributed between different categories, there is a need to establish a database of credit hours use in engineering degree programs. The degree of variability within and across degree programs will be evaluated. Such information can help professional societies understand how programs are using credit hours as they consider and update Bodies of Knowledge. This will also provide individual programs a sound base to which comparisons may be made.