Iranian brain drain not stemming :: BBC

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The number of educated young Iranians trying to leave the country appears to have increased in the last year since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office judging by the numbers sitting the IELTS exam.

The figures have increased two-and-a-half times this year over the same period last year, according to the Australian administrators of the test.

A year ago, the International Monetary Fund said Iran had the highest rate of brain drain of 90 countries it measured.
. . .
According to the IMF more than a 150,000 of the best young minds in Iran are leaving every year.
. . .
It will be months before these students can do their language test. Then they will join the long queues outside foreign embassies in Tehran.

And the cost to Iran of not stemming this brain drain - one government estimate put it at nearly $40bn a year.