Authority as a philosophical concept is defined both in general and as it applies to engineering education. Authority is shown to be a good and necessary part of social structures, in contrast to some cultural trends that regard it as an unnecessary and outmoded evil. Technical, educational, and organizational authority in their normal functions in engineering education are described, and challenges to these types of authority in the form of laws, accreditation changes, and the rise of the discipline of engineering education research are detailed. The principle of subsidiarity (basically, devolution of authority to the lowest feasible level) is applied to the issue of authority in engineering education organizations.