KARACHI, Dec 11: The University of Karachi is conducting BCom (first and second year) annual examination, 2006, for college students from Tuesday at about 39 centres set up on the campus and in city colleges.

According to an official of the examination department, about 36,000 candidates will take the examination, which will continue up to January 8.

In view of the large number of candidates registered for the examination, the examination department has also erected a number of tents on the campus, in addition to classrooms, for the purpose.

The official said the university had already started conducting BSc examinations and therefore accommodation for all candidates in classrooms was not available.

It was learnt that the number of candidates taking BCom examinations from colleges had increased considerably during the last couple of years, while registration of candidates for BSc examination had dropped to about 4,000.

Commerce examination centres will be operational for female regular candidates in city colleges, while all the male students from colleges will take their examination at centres set up in different departments, the gymnasium and tennis court and institutes of the university.

A number of college students turned up on the campus on Monday and tried to persuade different authorities to accept their examination forms on hardship grounds.

But they refused to entertain them, saying that the university had been accepting examination forms from leftover candidates till December 2 and it was no long possible to accept forms.

In all 27,000 male and 9,000 female candidates are likely to appear in the BCom examination.

In the meantime, in its efforts to ensure a foolproof and cheating-free conduct of degree class examinations, the KU administration has appointed a number of vigilance officers from colleges and the university who would pay surprise visits to examination centres.

It was said that candidates involved in cheating would be severely penalised in addition to cancellation of papers.

Impersonators caught during the examinations would not only have to pay Rs5,000 as fine, but his or her photographs and names will also be released to the media for publication, said a senior official of the university.

During the BSc examination, so far the examination staff on the campus have detected only one person impersonating as a student of the Government Degree Science College, Landhi.

The impersonator with the support of the guardian of the student in question had to pay Rs5,000 on the spot for the offence.

An examination official clarified that BA (Regular and External) examination will commence on January 17 with the paper of English Compulsory Part-I.

However, papers of BA which are common with BSc and papers of Mass Communication, Geography, General History, Philosophy and Fine Arts will be held on different dates from December 19 onwards, he added.