Love and desire gripping student -- would that be wise? (6)
I believe the answer is:
owlish
'wise?' is the definition.
('owlish' can be similar in meaning to 'wise')
'love and desire gripping student' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'desire' becomes 'wish' (wish is a kind of desire).
'gripping' is an insertion indicator.
'student' becomes 'l' (as in L-plates for learner drivers).
'wish' placed around 'l' is 'wlish'.
'o'+'wlish'='OWLISH'
'would that be' is the link.
(Other definitions for owlish that I've seen before include "solemn and wise in appearance?" , "Solemn, wise; like a bird" , "Having appearance like wise old bird" .)