Financial Tribune - Recent studies by the National Elites Foundation reveal a significant downtrend in the emigration of Iranian university entrance exam (locally known as concours after the French word meaning competition) toppers, and Science Olympiads.

The study surveyed 2,712 of the selected Olympiad students and 35,313 of top students who ranked between 1 and 1,000 in concours.

The average rate of emigration among top students of mathematics in concours decreased from 60% between the fiscal 2011-12 and 2013-14 to 38% among those graduating between the fiscal 2016-17 and 2018-19.

For top-ranking students of natural science, the emigration rate dropped from 10% to 7% during the same period.

The rate for students of humanities dropped from 20% to below 8%.