Material from former college given to woman, say (9)
I believe the answer is:
polyester
'material' is the definition.
(I know that polyester is a material)
'former college given to woman say' is the wordplay.
'former college' becomes 'poly' (polytechnic).
'given to' says to put letters next to each other.
'woman say' becomes 'ester' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'poly'+'ester'='POLYESTER'
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for polyester that I've seen before include "This material goes out to Presley" , "Synthetic fibre or substance" , "Stole prey (anag) - synthetic material" , "Man-made fibre" , "Synthetic textile" .)