College official advanced into study (4)
I believe the answer is:
dean
'college official' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'advanced into study' is the wordplay.
'advanced' becomes 'a' (abbreviation).
'into' is an insertion indicator.
'study' becomes 'den' (term for a study or office).
'a' put into 'den' is 'DEAN'.
(Other definitions for dean that I've seen before include "Torvill's ice dancing partner" , "Head of e.g. faculty" , "college head" , "Cathedral dignitary; head of university department" , "school head" .)