Bars lakes around a southern university (8)
I believe the answer is:
measures
'bars' is the definition.
(I know this)
'lakes around a southern university' is the wordplay.
'lakes' becomes 'meres' (mere is a kind of lake).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'university' becomes 'u' (abbreviation for university).
'a'+'s'+'u'='asu'
'meres' enclosing 'asu' is 'MEASURES'.
(Other definitions for measures that I've seen before include "Finds the length of" , "Ascertains the size, of dances?" , "Determine the dimensions" , "Evaluates" , "Portions" .)