Difficult securing first in Richmond (Virginia) university (7)
I believe the answer is:
harvard
'university' is the definition.
(Harvard University is an example)
'difficult securing first in richmond virginia' is the wordplay.
'difficult' becomes 'hard' (synonyms).
'securing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'first in richmond' becomes 'r' (1st letter of 'richmond').
'virginia' becomes 'va' (US state abbreviation).
'r'+'va'='rva'
'hard' placed around 'rva' is 'HARVARD'.
(Other definitions for harvard that I've seen before include "Ivy-league university" , "Oldest US university" , "place of learning" , "Member of the 11 at Cambridge, Massachusetts" , "US Ivy League university" .)