HEC Made GRE/HAT Mandatory, Then Deferred It Two Weeks Later — Here’s What Actually Applies to Your Fall 2026 Admission

If you are applying for an MS, MPhil or PhD in Pakistan this session and you have read that a GRE or HAT score is now compulsory — that page is out of date. The HEC GRE HAT policy 2026 was notified in mid-May and then deferred by HEC itself less than two weeks later.

This matters right now because Fall 2026 admissions are open. Students are filling forms and sitting university tests this month, and a lot of what is still ranking on Google describes a requirement that HEC has put on hold.

The short answer: HEC’s mandatory GRE/HAT requirement for MS, MPhil and PhD admissions is deferred. The 12 May 2026 notification made ETC-conducted GRE/HAT tests compulsory from Fall 2026; a 24 May 2026 notification pushed that to Fall 2027. Fall 2026 admissions continue under universities’ existing criteria.

The two notifications, in order

Both are listed on HEC’s own notifications page, which is the cleanest way to check this yourself.

Notification 1 — “Mandatory Conduct of GRE/HAT General & Subject Test through HEC-Education Testing Council (ETC).” HEC’s notifications page dates it 12 May 2026; national newspapers reported it as issued on 13 May. It made GRE/HAT General mandatory for Level 7 admissions (MS, MPhil or equivalent) and GRE/HAT Subject mandatory for Level 8 admissions (PhD or equivalent), at both public and private institutions, conducted through HEC’s Education Testing Council. It also barred universities from running their own entry tests as an alternative. HEC said the change was for standardisation, transparency, quality assurance and merit. The Express Tribune, The News and The Nation all reported it, and HEC’s chairman confirmed the policy publicly.

Notification 2 — “Deferred Implementation of Mandatory Conduct of GRE/HAT-General & Subject Test.” Dated 24 May 2026 and addressed to the general public. It moved implementation from Fall 2026 to Fall 2027. ProPakistani, Pakistan Observer, Pakistan Times and Suno News all reported it, and HEC’s chairman Dr Niaz Ahmed Akhtar confirmed the revised timeline on X. HEC’s own social post, quoted by The Opinion, stated the deferral plainly: implementation moves from Fall 2026 to Fall 2027 after universities and degree-awarding institutions asked for more time, and Fall 2026 admissions continue under existing criteria.

Twelve days between the two. That gap is the whole reason for the confusion.

What applies to your Fall 2026 application

The practical position, based on the deferral notification and the reporting around it:

• You do not need an ETC-conducted GRE/HAT score for Fall 2026 admission. The requirement has been deferred.
• Universities can run their own entry tests again for this cycle. The ban in the May 12 notification is not in force.
• Your university’s existing admission criteria apply. Whatever your department published for this session is what counts.
• Existing recognised third-party test scores remain in use where a university accepts them — NTS-GAT being the common one. Confirm with the department rather than assuming.
• The Graduate Education Policy thresholds are the ones you were always working to. Reporting on the May notification described the pre-existing GEP position as a 50% passing standard for MS/MPhil-level admission tests and 60% for PhD-level, which the May policy would have replaced. With the deferral, treat your university’s published threshold as authoritative.

That last point is the one to verify personally rather than take from any article, including this one.

Why HEC deferred it

Not a reversal, and not a change of mind about the policy itself.

Multiple outlets reported the same reason: universities and degree-awarding institutions asked for more time. The change was substantial — it would have moved testing authority for every postgraduate admission in the country to a single body, required institutions to coordinate with the ETC, and forced changes to admission systems already built around their own tests. Doing that between a mid-May notification and a Fall 2026 intake was not realistic.

HEC has been clear the policy is coming, just later. The extra year is a transition window for institutions to align systems, not a quiet cancellation. If you are applying for Fall 2027 or later, plan for the test.

Why so much of the internet still says it’s compulsory

This is worth understanding, because it will happen again with the next policy.

The mandatory notification was a bigger story than the deferral. It ran in the major national papers with strong headlines. The deferral, twelve days later, was picked up mainly by education-news sites and a few smaller outlets. So the pages with the most authority — the ones Google is most likely to surface — are the ones describing the superseded position, and most of them have not been updated.

There is one specific claim circulating that you should ignore. At least one page ranking on this topic advises students to refuse an admission offer from any university that admits them without an ETC score, on the basis that HEC will later refuse to attest the degree. Under the deferral, that reasoning does not hold for Fall 2026 admissions, and acting on it could cost someone a place they had legitimately earned.

The general rule for anything HEC-related: a notification’s date is part of the information. A page that tells you what the rule is without telling you which notification it is quoting, and when, is not something to act on

What the policy will require from Fall 2027

Assuming it is implemented as notified, this is the shape of it:

For Level 7 — MS, MPhil or equivalent: GRE or HAT General, conducted through the Education Testing Council.

For Level 8 — PhD or equivalent: GRE or HAT General plus the relevant subject test, through the ETC.

Applies to: all public and private higher education institutions offering these programmes.

Universities cannot substitute their own entry test for the ETC test. What they retain, according to reporting on the notification, is the right to run interviews and to assess research synopses after a valid score is submitted — the test becomes the eligibility gate, not the whole decision.

If you are a final-year undergraduate now, this is your cycle. Sitting a HAT General while your subject knowledge is fresh is a reasonable move even before the policy binds, because a valid score is useful under both the old and new systems at most institutions.

GRE, HAT, NTS-GAT — which is which

Worth separating, because the three get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing.

GRE is the international Graduate Record Examination, used for admissions worldwide and administered commercially. It is the expensive option, and it is the one that also serves overseas applications.

HAT is HEC’s own Higher Education Aptitude Test, administered through the Education Testing Council, in General and Subject versions. It is the domestic option and the one the deferred policy is built around.

NTS-GAT is the National Testing Service’s Graduate Assessment Test, long accepted by many Pakistani universities for postgraduate admission. It is not the same as HAT, and it is not what the ETC policy specifies — which is precisely why the deferral matters to anyone holding a GAT score.

If you already hold a valid NTS-GAT score and you are applying for Fall 2026, ask your department directly whether it is accepted. Do not assume either way from a news article.

How to check your own case in ten minutes

Four steps, in this order, and they settle it definitively:

1. Open hec.gov.pk and go to the Notifications page. Find “Deferred Implementation of Mandatory Conduct of GRE/HAT-General & Subject Test,” dated 24 May 2026. Read it yourself. It is short.
2. Check whether anything has been issued since. HEC lists notifications by date. If a newer one supersedes the deferral, it will be there — and it will be more current than any article.
3. Open your university’s admission page for this session. The department’s published criteria are what your application is actually assessed against.
4. Email or call the admission office with one specific question: for Fall 2026 admission to this programme, which test scores do you accept? Keep the reply.

Step four is the one people skip and the one that actually protects you. A written answer from the admission office beats every article on this subject.

What this does not change

Worth stating clearly, because the deferral has been over-read in places:

• Undergraduate admissions are unaffected. This policy only ever concerned Level 7 and Level 8.
• MDCAT is a separate system under the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, unaffected by this notification.
• Foreign scholarship applications — DAAD, Chevening, Erasmus Mundus and the rest — run on their own requirements. If a programme abroad asks for a GRE score, HEC’s timeline has nothing to do with it.
• HEC’s own scholarship programmes may specify their own tests. Read each advertisement on its own terms.

The timeline

Date	What happened
2023	Graduate Education Policy sets the existing admission-test framework for Level 7 and 8
12 May 2026	HEC notifies mandatory ETC-conducted GRE/HAT for Level 7 and 8, effective Fall 2026; university entry tests barred
13–15 May 2026	Reported by Express Tribune, The News, The Nation and others
24 May 2026	HEC notifies deferred implementation — moved to Fall 2027
25–26 May 2026	Deferral reported; HEC chairman confirms revised timeline publicly
Fall 2026 (now)	Admissions proceed under universities’ existing criteria
Fall 2027	Deferred policy scheduled to take effect

Key Takeaways

• The mandatory GRE/HAT requirement for MS, MPhil and PhD admissions is deferred to Fall 2027. It does not apply to your Fall 2026 application.
• Two HEC notifications matter: 12 May 2026 (mandatory from Fall 2026) and 24 May 2026 (deferred to Fall 2027). Both are on HEC’s notifications page.
• Universities may run their own entry tests for this cycle, and their published criteria are what apply.
• The deferral came after universities and degree-awarding institutions requested more implementation time — HEC has not withdrawn the policy.
• Ignore advice to refuse an admission offer made without an ETC score. That was based on the superseded position.
• If you are applying for Fall 2027 or later, plan for HAT or GRE now.
• Verify your own case in writing with your university’s admission office. That answer outranks every article.

Sources

• Higher Education Commission — Notifications page, hec.gov.pk (both the 12 May and 24 May 2026 notifications)
• The Express Tribune — report on the mandatory GRE/HAT policy and the entry-test ban
• The News and The Nation — coverage of the mandatory notification
• ProPakistani — coverage of both the mandatory policy and the subsequent deferral
• Pakistan Observer, Pakistan Times, Suno News, The Opinion — deferral coverage, including HEC’s own statement and the chairman’s confirmation

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