Fitting of French to protect university (3)
I believe the answer is:
due
'fitting' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'of french to protect university' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'to protect' is an insertion indicator.
'university' becomes 'u'.
'de' enclosing 'u' is 'DUE'.
(Other definitions for due that I've seen before include "Outstanding" , "Escort" , "Appropriate - fee - requiring payment" , "Owed - expected" , "deserts" .)