AUGUSTA – The “brain drain” isn’t as prevalent as previously assumed, according to a study of about 1,800 young, college-educated Mainers.

Released Tuesday by the Finance Authority of Maine, the survey of college graduates found that about half of the respondents chose to remain in Maine or to return here to live and work and that more than half who graduated from an out-of-state college returned. Also, half of all 18-year-olds who attended college outside the state ended up transferring to a Maine institution to complete their degree and half of the state’s “best and brightest” students attended college in Maine.

“Overall, 75 percent of the graduates in 1997, 1998 and 1999 ended up earning their degree from a Maine institution,” said David Silvernail of the University of Southern Maine’s Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation, which conducted the survey.

“But it’s a two-edged sword, because two-thirds of the best and brightest end up living and working outside the state,” he said during a news conference at the State House.

The poll aims to increase understanding of how Maine’s young people decide what college to attend and where to live and work after earning their first college degree. The goal is to increase the number of Maine residents with bachelor’s degrees and get them to stay in the state or return to live and work after they’ve earned their degree; provide the state’s current and future employers with a diverse, highly qualified work force; and attract more out-of-state residents to attend college here and remain here to live and work.

“The report gives some good, objective research to policymakers to help formulate strategies and policies to encourage more students to stay and more graduates to come back,” said John Witherspoon, chief executive officer of FAME, a business and higher education financial aid agency.

According to the report, Maine needs to provide more financial support to its two- and four-year colleges and universities so they can improve the quality of their programs; better market its higher-education institutions to increase public awareness about the quality programs that already exist; expand the levels of financial assistance to students to keep Maine’s institutions of higher education competitive; implement strategies such as loan forgiveness or repayment programs; and increase economic development.

Following up a similar survey done several years ago, the new report found that young Mainers choose a college based on the school’s reputation, size and quality of programs. Affordability and the availability of financial assistance also played a large part in determining where they continued their education.

But the reasons people gave for staying in Maine to live and work differed from those who decided to leave the state, the report notes. Graduates remained here because they wanted to be closer to friends and family and have access to recreational and cultural-social activities. Meanwhile, those who moved away were influenced by career opportunities as well as pay and benefits.

Many respondents who had left Maine said they would have liked to stay but “felt the job opportunities and pay in the state were simply not competitive with the rest of the nation.”

“I couldn’t find a job I wanted,” one respondent said. “Find me a good one and I’ll move back in a second.”

Many of those who remained here pointed out that they are sacrificing better career opportunities and pay.

The trick, according to Silvernail, is to “protect the way of life” that induces young people to stay in Maine while expanding the economic viability and the career opportunities that will prompt others to return.

While the report doesn’t offer a lot of surprising data, it does provide hard evidence about a number of issues, including the significant number of students who transfer back to a Maine college or university after initially enrolling out of state, Silvernail said. The fact that a majority of the best and brightest students move away after attending college in Maine is “alarming,” but the silver lining is that “those people are just waiting to come back,” he said.

The report “reinforces the governor’s commitment to understand more about migration, access to higher education, and the decisions that go into who returns here and who goes where,” said Daryl Fort, the state’s director of community development. He said it also should help to steer people away from the anecdotal and sentimental assertions that have driven the debate in the past.

An electronic copy of the report is available at www.famemaine.com.