Nine-year-old prodigy Laurent Simons quits university amid row over date of his graduation

A nine-year-old boy prodigy who looked poised to become the world's youngest ever university graduate has dropped out of his course following a row over his graduation date.

Laurent Simons was on track to complete a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Eindhoven's University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The Belgian boy made headlines around the world when it was reported he was due to finish his studies before the end of the year - which would have made him the first person under the age of 10 to graduate from higher learning.

Laurent, who has an IQ of 145, needed to graduate before his birthday on December 26 to achieve the accolade.

But, the university told his parents there were still too many exams Laurent needed to take before then.

The parents removed their son immediately having refused an offer of a mid-2020 graduation date.

Alexander Simons, Laurent's father, told Dutch media the university had criticised him for frequently courting media coverage of his son.

"We were told that with the media attention we put too much pressure on our child, and that if we continued, a psychiatric examination would have to be made," he told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

"If a child can play football well, we all think the media attention is great. My son has a different talent. Why should he not be proud of that?"

"Until last week everything was fine, and now suddenly they see a delay of six months."

The father said the exact date of the graduation had never been confirmed but said he felt the university was reacting to their plans to move Laurent's education abroad

Laurent's Instagram account also posted a screenshot of an email the university had sent them last month about potential December graduation dates below a caption saying: "Liar liar pants on fire!!!"

Laurent has previously said he is inspired by inventor Nikola Tesla and says he wants to research artificial organs.

In a statement, Eindoven's University of Technology said that if Laurent were to rush the course his academic development would suffer

Adding, he could not graduate before turning 10 if he was also to develop "insight, creativity and critical analysis".

The university also cautioned against placing "excessive pressure on this nine-year-old student" who, it said, had "unprecedented talent".

The current titleholder for the youngest person to obtain a degree is American Michael Kearney, who achieved the feat in June 1994 at 10 years and four months, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

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