Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem
Course timetabling is an ongoing challenge that universities face all around the world. This combinatorial optimization task involves allocating a set of events into finite time slots and rooms while attempting to satisfy a set of predefined constraints. Given the high number of constraints and the...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier BV
2023
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/1/Meta-heuristic%20approaches%20for%20the%20university%20course%20timetabling%20problem.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848865204916453376 |
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| author | Abdipoor, Sina Yaakob, Razali Goh, Say Leng Abdullah, Salwani |
| author_facet | Abdipoor, Sina Yaakob, Razali Goh, Say Leng Abdullah, Salwani |
| author_sort | Abdipoor, Sina |
| building | UPM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Course timetabling is an ongoing challenge that universities face all around the world. This combinatorial optimization task involves allocating a set of events into finite time slots and rooms while attempting to satisfy a set of predefined constraints. Given the high number of constraints and the large solution space to be explored, the University Course Timetabling Problem (UCTP) is classified as an NP-hard problem. Meta-heuristic approaches have been commonly applied to this problem in the literature and have achieved high performance on benchmark datasets. This survey paper provides a comprehensive and systematic review of these approaches in the UCTP. It reviews, summarizes, and categorizes the approaches, and introduces a classification for hybrid meta-heuristic methods. Furthermore, it critically analyzes the benefits and limitations of the methods. It also presents challenges, gaps, and possible future work. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T14:01:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm-108762 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T14:01:00Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | upm-1087622024-10-11T08:23:09Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/ Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem Abdipoor, Sina Yaakob, Razali Goh, Say Leng Abdullah, Salwani Course timetabling is an ongoing challenge that universities face all around the world. This combinatorial optimization task involves allocating a set of events into finite time slots and rooms while attempting to satisfy a set of predefined constraints. Given the high number of constraints and the large solution space to be explored, the University Course Timetabling Problem (UCTP) is classified as an NP-hard problem. Meta-heuristic approaches have been commonly applied to this problem in the literature and have achieved high performance on benchmark datasets. This survey paper provides a comprehensive and systematic review of these approaches in the UCTP. It reviews, summarizes, and categorizes the approaches, and introduces a classification for hybrid meta-heuristic methods. Furthermore, it critically analyzes the benefits and limitations of the methods. It also presents challenges, gaps, and possible future work. Elsevier BV 2023 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/1/Meta-heuristic%20approaches%20for%20the%20university%20course%20timetabling%20problem.pdf Abdipoor, Sina and Yaakob, Razali and Goh, Say Leng and Abdullah, Salwani (2023) Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem. Intelligent Systems with Applications, 19. pp. 1-18. ISSN 2667-3053 https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2667305323000789 10.1016/j.iswa.2023.200253 |
| spellingShingle | Abdipoor, Sina Yaakob, Razali Goh, Say Leng Abdullah, Salwani Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| title | Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| title_full | Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| title_fullStr | Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| title_full_unstemmed | Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| title_short | Meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| title_sort | meta-heuristic approaches for the university course timetabling problem |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/108762/1/Meta-heuristic%20approaches%20for%20the%20university%20course%20timetabling%20problem.pdf |