Purpose:

To establish a strategy to develop a three-stage university schedule through mathematical programming taking into account the problems faced by most public higher education centers in Mexico which includes hiring professors on a temporary basis in each school cycle.

Methodology:

The strategy involved the breakdown of the original problem into three mathematical models considering the binary variables of two indexes: the use of both subsets in modeling and heuristics.

Results:

Compact class schedules were generated for students taking advantage of classroom space and efficiently employing university professors. The strategy achieved the automation of the process in the elaboration of schedules.

Limitations:

The work presented only analyses the case of the National Technological Institute of Mexico in Celaya. For the moment, neither the use of laboratories nor the aleatory demand for groups and subjects are considered.

Findings:

The strategy presented generated a reduction of at least 98.34% of the number of variables allowing the exact branch and bound technique to achieve efficient times in the search for a solution in a problem classified as NP-hard.