Police and Rangsit University are working together in an attempt to prosecute those involved in a high-tech cheating scheme during a recent College of Medicine admissions test.
But they say a lack of legislation directly addressing cheating at private universities is making the case difficult to prosecute.
"We are looking at related laws such as the offences of theft and embezzlement," said Krisanaphong Poothakool, president of the Institute of Criminology and Justice Administration at Rangsit University and a member of the university's investigation team.
Pak Khlong Rangsit police chief Kornwat Hanpradit said authorities had so far been unable to take legal action against the students, as it was not clear whether they had actually broken any laws.
"We are in the process of questioning everyone involved," he said.
The three students caught cheating have already been blacklisted by the university and the Medical Council of Thailand, but Pol Lt Col Krisanaphong said the university was taking the issue seriously and hoping to pursue it further as it had also involved an outside party.
The students were caught attempting to use smart watches to receive answers to the medical school entrance exam, in an elaborate scheme set up by a tutoring school.
The school sent proxies to sit the same test wearing camera-equipped glasses which were used to record the questions and send them back to tutors.
The three students reportedly agreed to pay the school 800,000 baht each if they passed the exam.
"We want to take action against the tutoring school that is behind this," Pol Lt Col Krisanaphong said, noting that many schools, even the bona fide ones, are not properly registered. "It is difficult to locate them because they can constantly change their name and phone number."
Advertisements for the tutoring school remain visible outside the dormitories at the university. "Guaranteed 100% success to enter Medical School, Dental Science and Pharmacy. If you don't get in, we return the money in full," reads the poster, which provides a telephone number but not the name of the school.
"We previously asked the building owners to remove these signs from their property as the advertisement looked dubious. But we cannot force them because we don't have power over their property," Pol Lt Col Krisanaphong said.
"We have heard about the use of high-tech devices in cheating before," he said. "But this is the first time we saw the use of a camera hidden in eyeglasses."
Pol Lt Col Krisanaphong said the university believes there was more than one collaborator involved in each step of the operation. "We are looking at all possibilities of offences that they might have committed."