ABSTRACT

With progressively decreasing state funding in the last two decades, timely graduation has become an imperative yet challenging problem for many public universities. Our research empirically studies students' enrolment and performance data during an 8-year period in a large college at the California State University Long Beach. Through data analytics, we identify four fundamental issues that lead to delayed graduation. We propose innovative solutions that directly tackle each of the four identified issues while systematically matching capacity and demand. Specifically, we propose major-specific degree roadmaps tailored to increase the chance students can successfully complete all required courses within the timely graduation window. Given major migration behaviours, we design robust roadmaps that proactively prepare students for possible major change later without delaying graduation. The well-crafted degree roadmap provides students with a clear path to degree attainment, as well as guidance on the timing of course enrolments. Further, to maximise students' access to courses as well as capacity utilisation, we develop an optimisation model to determine the class schedule in which all students are guaranteed a seat within their preferred time window in all required classes. The proposed approach is widely applicable to many institutions facing the timely graduation challenge.

摘要

随着过去二十年国家资助的逐步减少，及时毕业已成为许多公立大学的当务之急但具有挑战性的问题。我们的研究对加州州立大学长滩分校一所大型学院 8 年期间学生的入学率和表现数据进行了实证研究。通过数据分析，我们确定了导致延迟毕业的四个基本问题。我们提出了创新的解决方案，可以直接解决四个已确定的问题，同时系统地匹配容量和需求。具体来说，我们提出了针对特定专业的学位路线图，以增加学生在及时毕业窗口内成功完成所有必修课程的机会。鉴于主要的迁移行为，我们设计了稳健的路线图，主动让学生为以后可能发生的重大变化做好准备，而不会延迟毕业。精心设计的学位路线图为学生提供了清晰的学位获得途径，以及课程注册时间的指导。此外，为了最大限度地提高学生获得课程的机会和容量利用率，我们开发了一个优化模型来确定课程表，保证所有学生在所有必修课的首选时间窗口内都有座位。拟议的方法广泛适用于许多面临及时毕业挑战的机构。访问课程以及能力利用，我们开发了一个优化模型来确定课程表，保证所有学生在所有必修课的首选时间窗口内有一个座位。拟议的方法广泛适用于许多面临及时毕业挑战的机构。访问课程以及能力利用，我们开发了一个优化模型来确定课程表，保证所有学生在所有必修课的首选时间窗口内有一个座位。拟议的方法广泛适用于许多面临及时毕业挑战的机构。