Exalted university, highly commended (8)

I believe the answer is:

upraised

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'exalted' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'university highly commended' is the wordplay.
'university highly' becomes 'u' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'commended' becomes 'praised' (I've seen this before).
'u'+'praised'='UPRAISED'

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(Other definitions for upraised that I've seen before include "Elevated" , "promoted" , "Exalted" , "Lifted" , "Given higher position" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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