Beginners in all colleges actually intended backing educational setting (8)
I believe the answer is:
academia
'educational setting' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'beginners in all colleges actually intended backing' is the wordplay.
'beginners in' says to take the initial letters.
'intended' becomes 'aimed' (aiming is a kind of intending).
'backing' says the letters should be written backwards.
The first letters of 'all colleges actually' is 'aca'.
'aimed' back-to-front is 'demia'.
'aca'+'demia'='ACADEMIA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for academia that I've seen before include "educational environment" , "Scholarly world" , "The world of scholarship" , "scholarly life" , "university circles" .)