Mate’s laughter about university provoking fuss (8)
I believe the answer is:
brouhaha
'fuss' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'mate's laughter about university' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'laughter' could be 'haha' (ha-ha is a kind of laughter) and 'haha' is found within the answer.
'university' could be 'ou' and 'ou' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'provoking' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for brouhaha that I've seen before include "Outcry" , "Noisy, excited and confused commotion" , "Storm" , "Noisy fuss" , "Overexcited critical response" .)