Crossword Genius

Males collecting English degrees (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

stages

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'degrees' is the definition.
('stage' can be a synonym of 'degree')

'males collecting english' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'english' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'stags' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for stages that I've seen before include "legs" , "Sagest kind of play venues" , "Positions or points in a process" , "Platforms for performances" , "Fixes" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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