Almost half of the executives at affiliates of the nation’s top 10 companies were found to be graduates of South Korea’s leading three universities or from schools abroad, according to Chaebul.com, a website devoted to conglomerate data.

Up to 594 ― or 23.9 percent ― of the 2,483 surveyed executives were graduates of Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University, while another 22.6 percent were from overseas universities as of last year.

Among the executives, 10.2 percent were from Seoul National University, while another 7 and 6.7 percent were from Korea and Yonsei Universities, respectively.

Following were executives from Pusan National University, Hanyang University, Sungkyunkwan University and Kyungpook National University. Only eight graduated from two-year vocational colleges, while another 11 were high-school graduates.

The companies included in the survey were Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, SK hynix, LG Electronics, Lotte Shopping, POSCO, GS E&C, Hyundai Heavy, Korean Air and Hanwha Chemical.