Small group reportedly delights in paid periods of leave for university staff (11)
I believe the answer is:
sabbaticals
'small group reportedly delights in paid periods' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'leave for university staff' is the wordplay.
'leave' becomes 'sabbatical' (sabbatical leave is a kind of leave).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'university staff' becomes 's' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sabbatical'+'s'='SABBATICALS'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for sabbaticals that I've seen is " study periods".)