Middlesex University developmental psychologist Joan Freeman was quoted in British newspaper The Guardian as saying her claims were valid. 'When youngsters are pushed educationally, their emotional and social development can lag behind, leaving them appearing even more juvenile when they turn up at the university gates,' she said.

Since 1974, Professor Freeman has been comparing children labelled as gifted with those who were not. She found that most prodigies regretted going to university early and have developed emotional problems.

Home-taught students may find it more difficult to build friendships and integrate socially, she said.

Ms Yusof, whose mother was born in Malaysia, is a case in point.

London-based Malaysian writer Zaharah Othman, a family friend of the Yusofs, recalled the strict study regime of their five children in a column for the New Straits Times.

All were home-schooled, kept away from other children their age, banned from watching television and listening to pop music, and reportedly hit by their father when they did not do well.

Ms Othman said Ms Yusof's Pakistani-born father described the British educational system as being in a state of 'paralysis' and boasted that Ms Yusof was not born a genius but turned into one because of his teaching techniques. Further raising questions about the 'techniques' that Ms Yusof was subjected to is the fact that her father, now 50, has been jailed for sexually assaulting two minors while supposedly tutoring them in maths.

Dr Peter Congdon, director of Gifted Children's Care in West Midland, said pushing children at an early age destroys their childhood.

'I have learnt a gifted child can go in any direction; they are just as likely to become criminals as they are a moral philosopher,' the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying.

In the absence of any evidence that people who attend university early do better in their careers, the advice to parents and teachers is: Don't do it.

'What's the point?' said Prof Freeman, who believes that in some cases, premature higher education is tantamount to abuse.

Even universities are shying away from the practice. 'We don't really encourage students to come younger than 18, except under very exceptional circumstances, for the reason that it means all staff have to be thoroughly police-checked,' said Cambridge University spokesman Tim Holt.

Still, The Guardian reports that the number of students under 18 at British universities had risen by half in the past six years, after a change to the age discrimination law in 2006 forced universities to consider all applicants.

And not everyone pours scorn on the trend. Mr John Walker, chairman emeritus of the Support Society for Children of Higher Intelligence, said: 'Many of these talented children can't relate to their own age group...

Moreover, they have an academic hunger that needs feeding.'