Preference booking system

Version: 2021-05-11


The purpose of the preference booking system is to automatically allocate places in courses and still pay attention to the students' wishes. All students stand the same chance to be allocated their preferred places. The time of placing a booking request has no effect on allocation.

Contents

Booking a course

Please perform the following steps to book a course covered by the preference booking system:

  • In LFU:online click on Courses or select the quicklink Course Catalog.
  • Select a semester.
  • Select a course.
  • If it is a course covered by the preference booking system, there is a button Book course (preference system) at the end of the course details during the booking period.

Your bookings receive the status booking request. This status remains until the places are allocated.

You'll find your preference booking in LFU:online > My bookings > My course bookings. The preference bookings are listed in a block above the "normal" course bookings.

You can now sort your preference bookings. The preference number (1 = highest priority) expresses how important it is for you to attend the course. By default, the first booking is given preference 1, the second booking preference 2 and so on. Use Increase priority or Reduce priority to shift a course up or down in the list. The most recent change is shown in orange.



Note: You can change the order of your preferences even after the booking period until the places are allocated.
Cancelling a booking

You can cancel a booking during the booking period. Please perform the following steps:

  • Go to LFU:online > My bookings > My course bookings.
  • Select a course and click the button Cancel booking.
  • On the following page click Cancel booking.
As long as the booking period is still running, you may book the course again. After the deadline, you can neither book a course nor cancel a booking.

Allocation of places in courses
Allocation procedure

Places in courses are allocated by LFU:online by means of an automated allocation procedure.

The procedure performs the following steps:

  • There are 2 variations of the preference booking system:
    1. You must book all available courses and set preferences.
    2. You only book the courses of interest to you.
  • Your booking requests and the booking requests of the other students are put on a list.
  • This list contains the name of the student, the courses and preferences.
  • The students are sorted in a specific order. The closer you are to the top of the list the better are your chances of getting a place.
  • This depends on the following criteria:
    • Criterion 1: Amount of booking requests. The fewer booking requests the closer you are to the top of the list. If other students have placed the same amount of booking requests, all those students are ranked randomly.
    • Criterion 2: Preferences. The courses are sorted by the order of preferences (i.e. 1,2,3,4,...).
  • After sorting the list, the places are allocated.
    • The list is processed from top to bottom.
    • A booking request will be confirmed if there is a free place.
    • Only one request is performed each round.
    • If there is no free place, the booking request is changed to status waiting list.
    • After the first round, the list is sorted again and the next round of allocation starts. This procedure will be repeated until all booking requests have been dealt with.

Overview of course bookings after allocation


After allocation the following values may appear:

  • booking confirmed
    You have been allocated a place in the course.
  • booking rejected
    You have not been allocated a place. The reason for your rejection is stated.
  • waiting list
    You will be shown your rank within the waiting list.

You can also see the round in which your booking request has been dealt with.