Yinan Wang was only 14 years old when he became a student at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, one of the most famous academic institutions in the world. Many people asked, ‘Isn’t 14 too young to attend a university?’
At the age of 12, Yinan Wang was like any other student at school in Beijing, in China. Then his father got a job at an aerospace company near London, so the whole family moved from Beijing to London. Yinan Wang continued his studies at a very large secondary school near their home.
When he arrived in England, Yinan Wang could only speak a few words of English. ‘At first I was very lonely’, he recalls. ‘I couldn’t speak to anyone, so I couldn’t make friend.’ However, his teachers could see that he was very intelligent. In fact, he was a genius. He was especially good at mathematics and science.
Two years later, Yinan Wang went to Oxford University to study science. At the age of 14, he was one of the youngest students to study at this famous university. However, his teachers thought he would have no problems. He had special classes in English at school, and was fluent by the age of 14. He also got top marks in all his math exams.
Yinan Wang was not the first child to go to Oxford University. Ruth Lawrence was only 13 when she went to Oxford to study mathematics. However, are young teenagers really mature enough for university? Many universities do not take students below the age of 17 or 18. People say they cannot enjoy university life. Other people disagree and say that very clever children should not wait.