Apart from overseas, where a significant number of graduates head each year, French university and higher education students migrate to specific areas in the hexagon. Although Paris has most students, after graduating many leave for other parts. Possibly because property and rental prices are so high there, young graduates move away to areas with cheaper housing, but most popular is, guess where, PACA (basically the Cote d'Azur region). But this tends to be older graduates, already in established professions seeking the sunshine lifestyle.
Paris area has the highest proportion of its population with a diploma, followed by Brittany and Midi Pyrenees. The least attractive area for students and graduates is Picardy - around the northern cities most hit by de-industrialisation. Large swathes of central France see many of their students leaving the area because their is little urban infrastructure or industry to keep them there. Hence the "desertification", with no doctors or medical specialists to support the population who do live there.
This internal "brain drain" is as big a problem as overseas migration for governments seeking to keep its educated population where it is needed.
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