A nine-year-old child genius has quit his university degree following a row about his graduation date.
Laurent Simons, from Amsterdam, was on track to become the world's youngest graduate.
But his record breaking plans were scuppered when he was informed he would not be able to complete his degree before he turns 10 on Boxing Day.
The youngster was told by the Dutch university of Eindhoven it would not be possible for him to sit his remaining exams in time.
His disappointed parents have now made the decision to terminate his studies.
Laurent - who has an has an IQ of 145 - made headlines around the globe last month, as he looked set to complete a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Eindhoven's University of Technology before the end of the year.
Laurent was supposed to complete the three-year course in just 10 months so he could meet his birthday deadline.
But on Monday, the university told Laurent and his parents that plan no longer looked feasible, considering the number of exams he still needed to finish before his birthday on December 26.
"Laurent is an exceptionally gifted boy, who is going through his studies at an unprecedented pace", the university said in a statement.
As the original plan looked unachievable, the university said it had offered "a still phenomenally quick scheme in which he would end his education mid-2020."
However, the boy's parents decided not to accept the offer and immediately ended Laurent's study in Eindhoven.
"Until last week everything was fine, and now suddenly they see a delay of six months," Laurent's father, Alexander Simons, said.
The exact date of Laurent's graduation had never really been an issue for the family, he said, but became one as they felt the university was reacting to their plans to move the boy's further education abroad.
"It's very peculiar that this all comes right at the time when we were finalising our plans for Laurent's PhD at a different university", his dad added.
"There is a lot of interest in Laurent from universities he would be honoured to join... There is so much demand for Laurent, he is a unique project which everybody wants to be a part of."
Laurent, inspired by Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, has said he wants to research artificial organs, and ultimately to develop an entire artificial body in his own laboratory.
Currently the youngest person to obtain a college degree is American Michael Kearney, who achieved the feat in June 1994 at the age of 10 years 4 months, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
