Ideal place providing protection for head in university area (6)
I believe the answer is:
utopia
'ideal place' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'protection for head in university area' is the wordplay.
'protection' becomes 'topi' (topi is a kind of protection**).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'head in' suggests taking the first letters.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
The first letter of 'university' is 'u'.
'topi' put after 'u' is 'utopi'.
'utopi'+'a'='UTOPIA'
'providing' is the link.
(Other definitions for utopia that I've seen before include "Perfect, yet impracticable, state" , "work in Latin" , "Thomas More's perfect society" , "More's perfect society on an imaginary island" , "Heaven" .)