The Office of Higher Education (OHEC), which runs the site, called yesterday for students to wait if they don't intend to apply for university via the OHEC-controlled direct-admission system.

This year is the first time university applications are only accepted online.

The deadline for direct admissions is today, but central admission applications can be made until Friday week (May 18), as OHEC has extended its original deadline.

"If you don't want to apply under the direct-admission system, please give way to others," OHEC secretary-general Pavich Thongroj said yesterday.

More than 30,000 applications were submitted online on Monday night, he said, causing problems with the CUAS website. At times the site crawled to a stop.

"If you are going to apply under the central admission

system, please sit back and

relax," Pavich commented.

More than 100 students arrived at OHEC headquarters yesterday morning, after finding they could not access the website on Monday night. Some complained they were unable to submit their applications online because the website had failed to retrieve their scores from the central database.

Pavich said the website should be able to accommodate all of the applicants under the OHEC-organised direct-admission system by today - if other students did not bog down the system with central-admission applications.

Pavich said there were only about 5,000 seats at higher-educational institutes available under the OHEC-organised direct-admission system. The central-admission system has more than 100,000 seats available.

The deadline for applications under the direct-admission system cannot be postponed, because Ohec is scheduled to announce the list of successful applicants eligible for interview on Sunday.

Pavich said the deadline extension for the central-admission system would not affect other admission schedules.