Gave out about university head's absent-mindedness (9)

I believe the answer is:

vagueness

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'gave out about university head's absent-mindedness' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'gave out about university head's absent-mindedness' is the wordplay.
'out' is an anagram indicator (out can mean wrong or inaccurate).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'head's' suggests taking the first letters (I've seen 'head' mean this).
'absent-mindedness' becomes 'ness' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The first letter of 'university' is 'u'.
'gave' is an anagram of 'vage'.
'vage' placed around 'u' is 'vague'.
'vague'+'ness'='VAGUENESS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for vagueness that I've seen before include "hazy" , "Lack of precision" , "Imprecision" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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