University course timetabling and the requirements: Survey in several universities in the east-coast of Malaysia

Course timetabling problem receives the highlight at the beginning of every semester. The problem is mainly on assigning courses to timeslot, rooms and lecturers which involving a set of rules and policies constraints. Generally, researchers present different features to signify their own universities’ timetable according to the structure and behavior of their institution. However, the gap between theory and real-world applications that can be seen in the resulted timetable is the lacking of acknowledging human preferences. As to overcome this, it is very important to consider all the demands and preferences from timetabling community. This research therefore tries to accommodate the problem by investigating through surveys to several universities in the east coast of Malaysia the demands and preferences of individuals involved directly. Results from the questionnaires will be analyzed by using SPSS and all current issues regarding the demands will be included into our existing general university course timetabling mathematical model. The new university course timetabling mathematical model could best represent universities and be useful, especially in universities in Malaysia.