A MILP model for the teacher assignment problem considering teachers' preferences

The Teacher Assignment Problem is part of the University Timetabling Problem and involves assigning teachers to courses, taking their preferences into consideration. This is a complex problem, usually solved by means of heuristic algorithms. In this paper a Mixed Integer Linear Programing model is developed to balance teachers' teaching load (first optimization criterion), while maximizing teachers' preferences for courses according to their category (second optimization criterion). The model is used to solve the teachers-courses assignment in the Department of Management at the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona, in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Results are discussed regarding the importance given to the optimization criteria. Moreover, to test the model's performance a computational experiment is carried out using randomly generated instances based on real patterns. Results show that the model is proven to be suitable for many situations (number of teachers-courses and weight of the criteria), being useful for departments with similar requests.