Investigation of timetabling in tertiary institutions in Southern Africa

Abstract

This paper deals with approaches to the timetabling problem, focusing on tertiary institutions in Southern Africa. A questionnaire which dealt with, inter alia, student population, number of class groups, methods used for timetabling and local constraints, was distributed to tertiary institutions in Southern Africa. The response rate was over 80%. Analysis of the responses yielded a number of interesting results, chief among these being that there is little consensus on any one method, and that the timetabling process is not fully automated in any institution. The analysis further indicated that a great deal of time and effort is involved in the process, up to 200 person-hours in some institutions. This paper details previous work in the field and outlines results from the questionnaire. Future research will be directed towards either finding a more efficient approach to the problem, or detemining which of the current methods is in fact most effective.