Mushi, Allen R.2024-04-052024-04-052006APA1607-9949https://doi.org/10.4314/ajst.v7i1.55191https://scholar.mzumbe.ac.tz/handle/123456789/551Article published in the African Journal of Science and Technology (AJST); Science and Engineering Series Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 34 - 40In this study we have addressed the NP-Hard problem of academic course timetabling. This is the problem of assigning resources such as lecturers, rooms and courses to a fixed time period normally a week, while satisfying a number of problem-specific constraints. This paper describes a Tabu Search algorithm that creates timetables by heuristically minimizing penalties over infeasibilities. The algorithm is developed with special focus on the University of Dar-assalaam and compares the results with a previous manually generated timetable. It has been found that, the Tabu Search technique gives better results given a careful selection of parameters.enTabu search algorithmsHeuristic algorithmsUniversity schedulingCourse timetablingArticle