Nipa Saelim, a Lua student from Nan, alleged IP-IES director Sombat Boonkamyeung persuaded her and her friends to study at the centre and assured them their tuition fees and other expenses would be waived until they graduated.

Sombat could not be reached for comment.

Nipa said she and other hilltribe students had yet to receive any of the money promised to them under the programme, adding that several of their parents had been forced to turn to loan sharks to support them.

"It seems we were lured by the director, Sombat, into studying at the centre, in order to raise his profile," Nipa said.

In the past three weeks, the students have also launched an appeal through the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, the Chiang Rai Damrongtham Centre and the Northern Hilltribe Network, said Surapoj Mongkolcharoensakul, a freshman in the Mekong River Basin ethnic-studies programme.

Surapoj said the group also submitted a formal complaint about the issue to CRU's president but had not yet received an answer from the university.

Last Saturday, the group, led by Ruchanee Niljan, an IP-IES instructor, notified Chiang Rai Pol Lt-General Songkran Sunwong of the issue, but the police said they needed more time to study the matter.

CRU deputy president Chaliew Prasithiwiset claimed the university was not ignoring the issue, but rather was setting up a panel to investigate the matter and that its findings should be released tomorrow.

He also said the university had not received a formal complaint about the problem until early this month but was aware of the comments about the financial burden on the students.

"We already have a special fund to help poor students with the right academic record.

"They just need to tell us their problems," he said.