Graduate and monarch in formation (6)
I believe the answer is:
making
'formation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'graduate and monarch' is the wordplay.
'graduate' becomes 'ma' (abbreviation for Master of Arts).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'monarch' becomes 'king' (king is a kind of monarch).
'ma'+'king'='MAKING'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for making that I've seen before include "Creating" , "Fabricating" , "Manufacturing" , "production" .)