Greatness can emerge from Harpenden (or MIT/Yale) (8)

I believe the answer is:

enormity

'greatness' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'can emerge from harpenden or mityale' is the wordplay.
'can emerge from' indicates a hidden word (the answer comes out of the clue).
'ENORMITY' can be found hidden inside 'harpenden or mityale'.

(Other definitions for enormity that I've seen before include "Atrociousness" , "major crime" , "Shocking act" , "Grave crime or sin" , "Evil" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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