A recent Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study couldn’t be clearer: college students are consistently leaving New England after graduation.

Only 63.6 percent of the 2008 graduating class was still living in New England one year after graduation – the lowest retention rate in the nation, according to the study.

So what’s going on with this “brain drain”? According to the report, recent college graduates who leave New England cite a number of reasons, including economic factors, like availability of jobs, compensation levels and cost of living, as well as noneconomic factors, like proximity to family, educational opportunities and local amenities, like weather, culture and recreation. Some of those factors probably can’t be dealt with, but the economic factors are very much within reach.

Now the challenge is how to keep those students in the commonwealth.

The study’s author suggests that internships and “cooperative learning opportunities” could be increased across the region. We couldn’t agree more, as internships and other opportunities are good ways to retain recently minted college graduates.

But, as always, there’s more that can be done. Massachusetts has a very solid knowledge-based economy. As of 2007, there were 124 colleges and universities in Massachusetts, employing almost 85,000 people. Eighty-five – or 68.5 percent – of those institutions were in the Boston area, employing more than 70,000 workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The business community should embrace this. More employers should be willing to follow the Fed’s advice by working closely with colleges and universities to tap talent.

But we should remember that this industry is also one of our greatest exports. So, while many students choose to come to Massachusetts for their higher education and then leave, they are also helping bring back that knowledge and powering the economy of their home state or country – which in turn helps Massachusetts. 

A Welcome Change

We all know it when we see it: that 1960s-era parking garage that brings to mind the worst of concrete architecture. Call it what you will, but the Government Center Garage, which sits not too far from Boston’s City Hall, is unpleasant to look at.

So when HYM Investment Group last week formally announced it would tear down the structure and rebuild it with a mix of housing, retail, a hotel and new office space, it was good news. HYM, you may remember, is behind Cambridge’s gigantic NorthPoint project and the Seaport District’s Waterside Place.

Now that the economy is a little rosier than it was a few years ago and developers are proposing more ambitious projects, some of the uglier aspects of Boston’s architecture may finally be buried for good.

Like the Big Dig, the plans would completely revamp the neighborhood, which is overshadowed by the parking garage. It would also open up that part of Congress Street, which hasn’t seen the light of day since the building was first constructed.