The spark for this question was a remark (you'll know which one when you see it!) made in this answer. My other reason for asking is that I recently learnt that one physics PhD program went ~25 years between curriculum evaluations. That seems like a long time period to me, but is it unusually long?
My question is, in principle, quite simple:
How often do US graduate programs, particularly in STEM fields, tend to reevaluate their curriculum and requirements? Is there a typical time frame?
Note that I'm not talking about year-to-year changes to the syllabus of individual courses, or the institution of new elective courses. Rather, I wonder how often a department might have a curriculum committee (or a similar structure) evaluate the program's structure for core courses, and the mandatory number of other courses. I'm also primarily interested in established programs that have been around for quite a while (that a two year old program is still figuring out its policies isn't terribly surprising).
Note also that I have added the reference request tag. If there is an actual report or survey out there, that would form an ideal answer. If someone happens to have experience from multiple programs that would also be useful, but if, like me, you only know the answer for a single program, a comment is likely more appropriate.
