Academic group that is keeping vaguely active (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
ivy league
'academic group' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'that is keeping vaguely active' is the wordplay.
'that is' becomes 'ie' (short for Latin 'id est', 'that is').
'keeping' indicates putting letters inside (some letters kept inside).
'active' indicates an anagram (the letters are active/moving).
'vaguely' anagrammed gives 'vyleagu'.
'ie' going around 'vyleagu' is 'IVY LEAGUE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ivy league that I've seen before include "Group of eight leading US universities" , "Harvard, Yale and six other private universities" , "Group of US universities of high prestige" , "Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale" , "Harvard, Yale etc" .)