Embrace university in Wells? (3)
I believe the answer is:
hug
'embrace' is the definition.
(I know that hug is a type of embrace)
'university in wells?' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'U' (abbreviation as in UMass).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'wells?' becomes 'HG' (HG Wells).
'u' put within 'hg' is 'HUG'.
(Other definitions for hug that I've seen before include "Cuddle" , "Tightly embrace" , "A hearty embrace as of bear" , "Embrace (like a bear?)" , "Bear-like embrace?" .)