They might be very friendly, but they sure seem to pull the trigger very quickly. That's the problem here. I understand that they don't want less engaged member

They might be very friendly, but they sure seem to pull the trigger very quickly. That's the problem here. I understand that they don't want less engaged members in their program. It sounds like there is a misunderstanding on expectations. The school expected people to be all present for that meeting. I don't know how well they communicated that expectation, but if it's a fireable offence to miss it without recourse or chance of pardon then they should have made that abundantly clear. The other missed expectation is that probably the school officials don't see this as a firing. After all they just moved his batch back by one. What's the big deal? Lot's of new people come in, some joins now, some joins 6 weeks later. That's perfectly sensible from the schools perspective. But from an individual's perspective, who just put their life on hold to do stuff with them for that specific 6 month, the next batch might very well not be a viable option. So these very friendly people sure seems to be also either lacking in empathy, or not really big on second chances. I will make sure to do my best to avoid them, less them be friendly with me too by accident.