MACKINAC ISLAND – Graduates of the state’s largest research universities are more likely than other university graduates to start businesses and were more successful than average business owners at keeping their companies open during the Great Recession, a study released Thursday showed.

The study – which was touted as the most extensive study of its type in the nation – found that 50 percent of those entrepreneurs had opened their businesses in Michigan.

And while so much of the national focus in recent years has been on the so-called STEM -science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas – the study found many of the businesses were started by liberal arts graduates.

Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University are producing entrepreneurs at “double the rate of any sector in the country,” said MSU President Lou Anna Simon.

And during the depths of the economic recession, the study found that entrepreneurs who graduated from the three schools were 1.5 times as likely to keep their businesses alive than other business owners.

The study was conducted by Anderson Economic Group, which contacted 450,000 graduates of the universities, and had responses from more than 40,000 of them. A total of 19 percent of them had started companies.

U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said one of the more surprising findings was that graduates who started businesses were as likely to come from fields like art, architecture, law and other fields.

Rob Fowler, president of the Small Business Association of Michigan, said the results of the study were impressive. Several years ago, the organization had called on the universities to increase their efforts to develop entrepreneurial programs and the study showed the schools’ efforts was yielding results.

WHERE COLLEGE GRADS GO: Contrary to popular belief, most Michigan college graduates do not leave the state. But more of those that do are employed full-time.

Those are the results of a survey conducted by the Detroit Regional Chamber and released at its annual conference.

The survey looked at Michigan college graduates who got their degrees in 2012, were not pursuing other education, were 28 or younger, those persons who would be most able to move.

The survey found that 63 percent of those graduates were still living in Michigan, while 37 percent had gone elsewhere.

In 2007, a similar survey found that 51 percent of graduates lived in Michigan.

However, the survey also found that 68 percent of those graduates in the state were employed full-time. But of those who had left the state, 86 percent were employed full time.

The survey also found that 66 percent of those working in Michigan were making $45,000 a year or less, while 53 percent of those outside the state were making $45,000 or more.

Those who had left the state did so mostly for career opportunities, though a desire for urban experiences and access to mass transit was also a reason, the survey said.

The survey also said that 86 percent of those questioned said that for their next job they will look for a place they would like to live.

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