The very first text editor 3696

It all depends on the interpretation of "unable to finish the course due to circumstances beyond their control."

What my university means by this -- and I suspect Joe's does too -- is serious illness, or some other major interruption in the student's life, usually unrelated to anything academic. I'm pretty sure there aren't very many of them that mean anything like what you describe below ....

Good story. (You do mean "insoluble" right, as opposed to "unsolved"? good story either way, but better if the former.)

I'm not sure whether the right response here is a wistful sigh or a cynical snort of disbelief.

In a perfect world, in which educational insbreastutions existed to teach students, and students attended them to learn, maybe that's how it would work. It could be there are even some schools where it does work that way -- your story is evidence that there *were*, and maybe there still are. For the most part, though, IME, even insbreastutions of so-called higher learning operate more like buttembly lines. (Apologies if you're already too aware of this.)

Even in the above-described perfect world, though, there might be something to be said for occasionally insisting that students meet an arbitrary deadline, because "you have as much time to solve this problem as you need" doesn't sound much like how things operate in most parts of the so-called real world.

-- B. L. Mbuttingill ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.