Fact-check: Viral DAE equivalency notification is fake, confirms HEC

A notification circulating on social media, dated July 23, claims that Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) has declared the three-year post-intermediate Diploma of Associate Engineering (DAE) equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.

It further claims that students holding this diploma can directly enroll in a master’s programme.

The notification is fabricated.

Claim

A purported notification dated July 23 is being shared on Facebook, that allegedly shows directions issued by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, a regulatory body of higher education in the country, to all accreditation and attestation divisions in the country.

The notification is titled: “Declaration of DAE equivalent to 14 years of education.”

In the supposed notification, the HEC declared that the Diploma of Associate Engineering (DAE), a three year programme which students can enroll in after Grade 10, “shall now be considered equivalent to 14 years of education (i.e. intermediate + two years), for the purposes of academic progression, job applications, and competitive exams.”

The notification further added that the equivalence is applicable for admission to relevant BS/BSC programmes, especially in engineering technology, applied sciences, and technical management.

The notification has also been shared elsewhere here, here and here.  

Fact

The notification is entirely fake. Geo Fact Check verified the content with the Higher Education Commission and through an independent review.

Tariq Iqbal, the official spokesperson for the HEC in Islamabad, confirmed via message that the notification is self-generated. He stated, “This [notification] has already been shared on the HEC website as fake.”

The official HEC account on X (formerly Twitter) also flagged the document publicly as false.

Geo Fact Check compared the viral document with legitimate HEC notifications and identified several inconsistencies, such as the HEC phone number and email listed on the viral document were obscured or unreadable.

Rehmat Ullah Khan Wazir, chief executive of the RED-C Institute of Engineering and Technology in Islamabad, also confirmed that no policy changes have been made regarding the academic status of the Diploma of Associate Engineering.

A digital forensic analysis by Attestiv gave the document a Tamper Score of 87, indicating a high likelihood that it was generated using artificial intelligence tools.

Verdict: The document being shared online claiming the Diploma of Associate Engineering is now officially equivalent to 14 years of education is false. The Higher Education Commission has issued no such notification and has publicly stated the document is fabricated.

Follow us on @GeoFactCheck on X (Twitter) and @geo_factcheck on Instagram. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]