Something outstanding about university maiden (5)
I believe the answer is:
debut
'maiden' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'something outstanding about university' is the wordplay.
'something outstanding' becomes 'debt' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'university' becomes 'u' (abbreviation for university).
'debt' enclosing 'u' is 'DEBUT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for debut that I've seen before include "First appearence as of society girl" , "Tubed (anag.)" , "where one began" , "Start -- launch" , "First appearance, a coming-out" .)