WHILE most 18-year-olds have been collecting their A Level results one teenager has already bagged a first-class degree.

Imran Nasim, 18, from Burgess Hill, scooped first-class honours in mathematics and physics.

It comes after he started a degree with the Open University at the age of 14.

And to top that he is about to start a PhD in physics at the University of Surrey.

He said: “I was delighted because I put in a lot of effort and it all really paid off.

“At the age of 12 I was already doing A Level work so to do a degree felt like the natural progression for me.

“I enjoyed everything I learnt and I progressed because I wanted to further my knowledge.

“I was doing six to eight hours a day minimum so it really brought me to a level where I could excel.”

Imran has been taught at home by his father after being refused entry to his first choice school St Paul’s Catholic College nearby.

He was also travelling on tour with his junior professional tennis player brother Adam at the time.

Father Tariq Nasim, 54, of The Wicketts, Burgess Hill, said: “We didn’t make a big fuss over him not getting into the school at the time.

“But there is an irony – if he had gone to the school he wouldn’t have achieved as well as he has.

“I realised when I was home schooling my sons, they were excelling more than they would at school.

“He was helping 18-year-olds with their A Level maths and physics when he was 13,so at a spur of the moment he applied to universities and because of his age the OU was suggested to him.”

The Open University is a popular distance learning university.

The majority of the OU’s undergraduate students study at home around work.

Imran passed the university’s assessment and formal interview aged 14, working hard over three years to earn his degree when most teenagers his age were working their way to sitting GCSEs..

He joins his five siblings who are the first generation in the family to go to university - making Mr Nasim and his wife Michelle very proud.

Now Imran is looking forward to studying in-depth astrophysics and gravitational waves from blackhole binaries.

He added: “This is a new area of research which has only been looked upon in the last few years, the chance to study this is a dream come true.”