THE CONVERGENCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND RPA IN ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT: A NEW PARADIGM FOR CREDIT EQUIVALENCE

Abstract

The increasing academic mobility of students and the growing flexibility of curricula in higher education have intensified the administrative challenges faced by institutions, particularly in the process of evaluating course equivalency for program transfers. This procedure, traditionally conducted manually by course coordinators, is characterized by bureaucracy, subjectivity, limited standardization, and operational delays, especially in universities that receive a high volume of requests. This article presents an innovative approach based on the integration of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support the decision-making process in this context. To demonstrate the viability of the proposed solution, a prototype was developed based on a hybrid architecture grounded in the Human-in-the-Loop model, in which algorithms automate the initial analysis while specialists retain supervisory authority and final validation responsibilities. Experimental results indicate an approximate 90% reduction in initial processing time, decreasing from 30 to 3 minutes per curriculum analyzed, while maintaining human intervention in cases requiring greater interpretative rigor. The findings suggest that intelligent automation can enhance efficiency, transparency, and decisional consistency without compromising the principles of academic governance.