No one under the direct-placement system turned up for admission interviews at Srinakharinwirot University's Faculty of Dentistry, leaving all of its 20 places still up for grabs.

The no-show was apparently due to scheduled applicants already landing seats at medical schools.

The Consortium of Thai Medical Schools has announced its list of acceptances before the Higher Education Commission (HEC) compiled lists of acceptances for other institutions.

The HEC, which administers the direct- and central-admission systems, is expected to delete the names appearing on the medical school acceptance list from its two systems to be fair to other applicants.

But lists for the direct-admission system still included the names of the future medical students.

Kanuengnij Siri-ngernyuang said her son's dream of becoming a dentist was shattered.

"The system is at fault," she said.

Her son scored 69.24 out of 100, which was very close to those on the list of successful applicants under the direct-admission system. Srinakharinwirot's dentistry school has decided not to fill the vacant seats with alternates from the direct-admission system.

Instead, it has decided to add the 20 vacant seats to the quota it has planned for the central-admission system.

"If so, why did you have a direct-admission system in the first place?" Kanuengnij asked. She said her son had not applied for the faculty under the central-admission system. HEC secretary-general Pavich Thongroj said it was possible that the Consortium of Thai Medical Schools had not yet submitted its updated list of acceptances.

As authorities have revised the O-Net (Ordinary National Educational Test) and A-Net (Advanced National Educational Test) scores of many students, the list of acceptances at medical schools has also been revised.

"Now we don't know how many duplicate names there are," Pavich said, adding that he assigned a senior official to get the latest list from the Consortium of Thai Medical Schools so those names could be purged from the direct-admission system.

It has always depended on each institution deciding whether to call runners-up, Pavich said.

Professor Avudh Srisukree, secretary-general of the Consortium of Thai Medical Schools, said he had foreseen the duplicate-name problem because of the delayed admission schedule.

Last month, the National Institute of Education Testing Service twice voided O-Net and A-Net scores it had announced, due to many errors. The lateness in publishing valid scores has upset the admission schedules.

"Actually, we should have announced the list of successful applicants on April 26," Avudh said, adding that medical schools just completed their interview process on Wednesday.

The HEC said 100,500 applicants were under the central-admission system and the results for them would be announced on Wednesday.

Professor Pratya Vesarach, chairman of the University Presidents' Council of Thailand, said it would meet on June 3 to discuss what was an appropriate enrolment system for next year.