Retreat from term of university living in a hovel (6)
I believe the answer is:
asylum
'retreat' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'term of university living in a hovel' is the wordplay.
'term of' indicates one should take the final letters (term can mean the terminus or ending of the word).
'living in' indicates putting letters inside.
'hovel' becomes 'slum'.
The final letter of 'university' is 'y'.
'a'+'slum'='aslum'
'y' going inside 'aslum' is 'ASYLUM'.
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for asylum that I've seen before include "Place of refuge, sanctuary" , "Refugee's protection" , "A shelter from danger or hardship" , "'Refuge, sanctuary (6)'" , "Place of refuge, once a mental institution" .)