Total a couple of graduates retains is capital (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
addis ababa
'capital' is the definition.
(capital of Ethiopia)
'total a couple of graduates retains is' is the wordplay.
'total' becomes 'add' (synonyms).
'couple of graduates' becomes 'baba' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'retains' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'add'+'a'+'baba'='addababa'
'addababa' placed around 'is' is 'ADDIS ABABA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for addis ababa that I've seen before include "place in Africa" , "Hot city" , "Ethiopian capital" , "Ethiopia's capital" , "African capital" .)