Modified Graph-theoretic Clustering Algorithm for Mining International Linkages of Philippine Higher Education Institutions

Graph-theoretic clustering either uses limited neighborhood or construction of a minimum spanning tree to aid the clustering process. The latter is challenged by the need to identify and consequently eliminate inconsistent edges to achieve final clusters, detect outliers and partition substantially. This work focused on mining the data of the International Linkages of Philippine Higher Education Institutions by employing a modified graph-theoretic clustering algorithm with which the Prim’s Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm was used to construct a minimum spanning tree for the internationalization dataset infusing the properties of a small world network. Such properties are invoked by the computation of local clustering coefficient for the data elements in the limited neighborhood of data points established using the von Neumann Neighborhood. The overall result of the cluster validation using the Silhouette Index with a score of .69 indicates that there is an acceptable structure found in the clustering result – hence, a potential of the modified MST-based clustering algorithm. The Silhouette per cluster with .75 being the least score means that each cluster derived for r=5 by the von Neumann Neighborhood has a strong clustering structure.