A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities
The timetabling problem is common to academic institutions such as schools, colleges or universities. It is a very hard combinatorial optimisation problem which attracts the interest of many researchers. The university course timetabling problem (UCTTP) is difficult to address due to the size of the...
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| Format: | Article |
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IEEE
2021-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9499056/ |
| _version_ | 1811274217199501312 |
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| author | Mei Ching Chen San Nah Sze Say Leng Goh Nasser R. Sabar Graham Kendall |
| author_facet | Mei Ching Chen San Nah Sze Say Leng Goh Nasser R. Sabar Graham Kendall |
| author_sort | Mei Ching Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The timetabling problem is common to academic institutions such as schools, colleges or universities. It is a very hard combinatorial optimisation problem which attracts the interest of many researchers. The university course timetabling problem (UCTTP) is difficult to address due to the size of the problem and several challenging hard and soft constraints. Over the years, various methodologies were proposed to solve UCTTP. The purpose of this survey paper is to provide the most recent scientific review of the methodologies applied to UCTTP. The paper unveils a classification of methodologies proposed in recent years based on chronology and datasets used. Perspectives, trends, challenges and opportunities in UCTTP are also presented. It is observed that meta-heuristic approaches are popular among researchers. This is followed closely by hybrid methodologies. Hyper-heuristic approaches are also able to produce effective results. Another observation is that the state-of-art methodologies in the scientific literature are not fully utilised in a real-world environment perhaps due to the limited flexibility of these methodologies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:14:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-59ffca191e6547a1ad9da0074e7b9a15 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:14:56Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-59ffca191e6547a1ad9da0074e7b9a152022-12-22T03:12:43ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362021-01-01910651510652910.1109/ACCESS.2021.31006139499056A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and OpportunitiesMei Ching Chen0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2889-925XSan Nah Sze1Say Leng Goh2Nasser R. Sabar3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0276-4704Graham Kendall4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2006-5103Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, MalaysiaFaculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, MalaysiaOptimisation Research Group, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah Kampus Antarabangsa Labuan, Labuan, MalaysiaDepartment of Computer Science and Information Technology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaSchool of Computer Science, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Semenyih, Selangor, MalaysiaThe timetabling problem is common to academic institutions such as schools, colleges or universities. It is a very hard combinatorial optimisation problem which attracts the interest of many researchers. The university course timetabling problem (UCTTP) is difficult to address due to the size of the problem and several challenging hard and soft constraints. Over the years, various methodologies were proposed to solve UCTTP. The purpose of this survey paper is to provide the most recent scientific review of the methodologies applied to UCTTP. The paper unveils a classification of methodologies proposed in recent years based on chronology and datasets used. Perspectives, trends, challenges and opportunities in UCTTP are also presented. It is observed that meta-heuristic approaches are popular among researchers. This is followed closely by hybrid methodologies. Hyper-heuristic approaches are also able to produce effective results. Another observation is that the state-of-art methodologies in the scientific literature are not fully utilised in a real-world environment perhaps due to the limited flexibility of these methodologies.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9499056/Combinatorial optimisation problemcourse timetabling problemoptimisation |
| spellingShingle | Mei Ching Chen San Nah Sze Say Leng Goh Nasser R. Sabar Graham Kendall A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities IEEE Access Combinatorial optimisation problem course timetabling problem optimisation |
| title | A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities |
| title_full | A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities |
| title_fullStr | A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities |
| title_short | A Survey of University Course Timetabling Problem: Perspectives, Trends and Opportunities |
| title_sort | survey of university course timetabling problem perspectives trends and opportunities |
| topic | Combinatorial optimisation problem course timetabling problem optimisation |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9499056/ |
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