The council will also consider whether to retain the current 30-per-cent weighting for high school grade point averages (GPAs) for another year.

Council chairman Pratya Vesarach said the Education Ministry had assigned him to inspect the new university-admission system following the controversy over the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) and Advanced National Education Test (A-Net) scores, which have been posted then voided twice by the National Institute of Education Testing Service.

"During the week, I will inspect the system and the council will determine at its meeting next Saturday whether and how the errors can be fixed, or whether the tests should be cancelled and another central national test used instead," Pratya said.

Pratya ruled out the demand from students and parents that the new university-entrance system be scrapped and the old one reinstated, saying that it would be a step backwards.

 "Returning to the old entrance exam wouldn't be fair for students who prepared for the new system," he added.

The council will discuss the reliability of the grading standards of different schools, he said.

"If we learn that the standards each school uses to grade students are unreliable, we will fix the weight of GPA considered in the university admission at 30 per cent for at least another year," Pratya said.

The new system, which took effect this year, gives at least 30 per cent weighting to a student's high school GPA. The rest of the weighting is derived from O-Net and A-Net scores. The Education Ministry previously planned to increase the GPA's weighting to 40-50 per cent in subsequent years.

The decision by the University Presidents Council will take effect if it is approved by the Education Ministry, Pratya said.

Pavich Thongroj, secretary-general of the Higher Education Commission, said about 4 million pages of O-Net and A-Net exams from about 300,000 students who took the tests had already been re-scored.

However, answer sheets for about 26,000 students whose took the exams have not been found. Pavich blamed the scanning system as well as those who took the tests, saying many failed to fully and accurately identify themselves on the answer sheets.

He insisted the results would be announced by the end of the month.