Neither down about college failure (5-2)

'neither down about' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'college failure' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'college' could be 'u' (abbreviation for University) and 'u' is found within the answer.
'failure' could be 'botch' (botch is a kind of failure) and 'botch' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'p' remains 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?