A student deserted one country for another (7)
I believe the answer is:
austria
'a student' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'deserted one country for another' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'country' could be 'us' (U.S. is an example) and 'us' is present in the answer.
'another' could be 'r' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'r' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ata' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for austria that I've seen before include "EU country" , "One state" , "Country of Graz and Linz" , "land in Europe" , "Its ruling house was the Hapsburgs" .)