Graduate's in charge with friend essentially (9)
I believe the answer is:
basically
'essentially' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'graduate's in charge with friend' is the wordplay.
'graduate's' becomes 'BA's' (someone with a Bachelor of Arts degree).
'in charge' becomes 'ic' (abbreviation for 'in charge').
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'friend' becomes 'ally' (an ally is a friend or supporter).
'bas'+'ic'+'ally'='BASICALLY'
(Other definitions for basically that I've seen before include "Fundamentally" , "Mostly" .)