Free time in university — Edinburgh, principally (5)
I believe the answer is:
untie
'free' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'time in university edinburgh principally' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't'.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'university' becomes 'uni' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'principally' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'edinburgh' is 'e'.
't' put within 'uni' is 'unti'.
'unti'+'e'='UNTIE'
(Other definitions for untie that I've seen before include "Loosen, as laces" , "get rid of bonds" , "Undo, unlace" , "resolve" , "Free from restraining bonds or ropes" .)