Boss providing funds, letting secretary off for educational activity (8)
I believe the answer is:
studying
'educational activity' is the definition.
'boss providing funds letting secretary off' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'boss' could be 'stud' (synonyms) and 'stud' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for studying that I've seen before include "Reading carefully with the intention to remember" , "Doing what a student should" , "In education" , "Acquiring knowledge" .)