A nine-year-old boy will become the youngest ever graduate next month, sparking a competition among the world’s top universities to tempt him to attend their campuses.

Laurent Simons has an IQ of at least 145 and will complete his electrical engineering degree at the Eindhoven University in December.

“I really want to go to California; the weather is nice there,” said Laurent, who is half Dutch and half Belgian and lives in Amsterdam.

But his dentist father, Alexander, said his son could be tempted away from the California sun by the dreaming spires of Oxbridge.

Professors from the best universities in the US are already courting Laurent, with offers of Masters and even PhD programmes. Some have already given him homework after informal Skype interviews.

“If he goes to America then we will go out with him and split our time there with his grandparents,” Alexander said.

Laurent only began his university studies in March.

His tutor said he was three times more intelligent than his next cleverest student.

Laurent, who dreams of becoming a heart surgeon or astronaut when he grows up, will smash the world record held since 1994 by Michael Kearney, who graduated from the University of Alabama at the age of 10.

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