One might climb to top class in university group (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
ivy league
'one might climb' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'top class in university group' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'class' could be 'league' (I've seen this before) and 'league' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ivy' 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).
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ivy league that I've seen before include "Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale" , "Group of prominent US universities" , "Brown's one of eight in this" , "Harvard, Yale etc" , "Group of eight leading US universities" .)