Forgive lecturer chasing expected number on course (6)
I believe the answer is:
pardon
'forgive' is the definition.
(I know this)
'lecturer chasing expected number on course' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'lecturer' could be 'don' (don can mean an academic) and 'don' is found in the answer.
'expected' could be 'par' (as in 'par for the course') and 'par' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pardon that I've seen before include "Forgiveness for an offence" , "Polite expression of regret, please excuse" , "What was that you said" , "Forgive (an error)" , "Excuse me, kindly overlook" .)