Optimum allocation of places to students in a national university system (Q1059002)

In several countries, the allocation of university places to students is handled by a Central Applications Office at a national level. An algorithm based upon a constrained form of the well-known Stable Marriage Problem is presented for optimum assignment of places to students in the sense that their actual entry standards and the sum of their preferences for the courses assigned are optimized subject to the constraints imposed by the minimum entry standards and the number of places available. A method for the reduction of the size of large problems is also given.