Distressing start to period in university environment (9)
I believe the answer is:
upsetting
'distressing' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'start to period in university environment' is the wordplay.
'start to' suggests taking the first letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'university' becomes 'U' (abbreviation for university).
'environment' becomes 'setting' (setting is a kind of environment).
The first letter of 'period' is 'p'.
'u'+'setting'='usetting'
'p' put within 'usetting' is 'UPSETTING'.
(Other definitions for upsetting that I've seen before include "Likely to put out" , "Distressing" , "Alarming" , "sad?" , "Disturbing or upturning" .)