University Course Timetabling Problem with Professor Assignment

Abstract

One of the decision problems in many organizations and institutions is to decide how to schedule different tasks, in particular, in higher education institutions. One of the main problems is the university course timetabling problem (UCTP): this problem consists of the allocation of events (courses, professors, and students) to a number of fixed time slots and rooms, this at the beginning of each academic period of the universities. The existent formulations include particular requirements from different educational levels and institutions, as in our case. In this paper, we focus on the university course timetabling problem with the assignment of professor-course-time slot for an institution in Mexico. Timetabling is constructed for the disciplinary courses that are offered by one of the academic departments. The main characteristics are as follows: (1) there are full-time and part-time professors; (2) a mandatory fixed number of courses has to be assigned to each full-time professor according to their academic profile; (3) there is a maximum number of courses assigned to part-time professors; (4) a professor-course matrix that specifies the valid assignation is defined; and (5) mandatory time periods for courses in different semesters are established and other traditional constraints. We present the integer linear programming model proposed to solve the case studied. The optimal solution was obtained with low computational effort through the classical branch-and-bound algorithm. We describe the complete timetable to show the model effectiveness.

Honours course timetabling and classroom assignment

“…In terms of solution approaches, the majority of works focused on solving educational timetabling problems to optimality using exact methods. Successful solutions using branch and bound methods or integer programming-based methods have been reported in [4,5]. A common criticism for the integer programming-based methods, however, is the heavy computational requirements that the branch and bound technique imposes on these models.…”

An Application of Integer Linear Programming Towards Universiti Malaysia Terengganu Course Scheduling Problem

“…It is not necessary to satisfy soft constraints, but the more of the model addresses them, a better outcome (timetable) is obtained. Some of the common constraints employed in most of the mathematical models found in the literature (Aizam & Caccetta, 2014;Aziz & Aizam, 2017;Aziz & Aizam, 2018;Arratia-Martinez, 2021) are listed:…”

Optimization in University Student Timetables: A Comprehensive Literature Review

“…UCTP can be addressed to generate the most optimal solution by utilizing optimization algorithms with the objective of maximizing the soft constraints which can vary depending on the institutions [1,3]. The course timetabling process takes place at the beginning of the semester involving the allocation of events such courses, lecturers and students to the fixed timeslots and rooms [3,5]. This article aims to narrow down the gap in understanding and identifies the approach taken in solving UCTP in higher educational institutions among ASEAN countries.…”