College managed somehow to admit the French (9)
I believe the answer is:
magdalene
'college' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'managed somehow to admit the french' is the wordplay.
'somehow' is an anagram indicator.
'to admit' indicates putting letters inside.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'managed' is an anagram of 'magdane'.
'magdane' going around 'le' is 'MAGDALENE'.
(Other definitions for magdalene that I've seen before include "saintly woman" , "See 21" , "College" .)