A decision support system for portuguese higher education course selection - First round

Abstract

Application for higher education courses is a delicate and important process. In this phase students face a great number of possibilities of choice. In order to help students in the decision making process a decision support system called C.U.R.S.O was developed. Based on a structured questionnaire the system determines de profile making use of a knowledge base and proposes a ranked list of the most suitable courses. Input variables take into account not only social and economic aspects but also the aptitude for a particular area. The first version of C.U.R.S.O was tested by hundreds of Portuguese students and schools. This paper presents and discusses the results attained during the first round.