Academic has rooms outside the university (8)
I believe the answer is:
studious
'academic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'rooms outside the university' is the wordplay.
'rooms' becomes 'studios' (I've seen this in other clues).
'outside' indicates putting letters inside.
'the university' becomes 'u'.
'studios' placed around 'u' is 'STUDIOUS'.
'has' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for studious that I've seen before include "Bookish, scholarly" , "Deliberate and painstaking - preparing for exam?" , "possessing industry" , "showing diligence" , "reading a lot" .)