Student gripped by selfishness retracted amorous glance (4)
I believe the answer is:
ogle
'amorous glance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'student gripped by selfishness retracted' is the wordplay.
'student' becomes 'l'.
'gripped by' is an insertion indicator.
'selfishness' becomes 'ego' (I've seen this before).
'retracted' is a reversal indicator.
'l' placed into 'ego' is 'elgo'.
'elgo' back-to-front is 'OGLE'.
(Other definitions for ogle that I've seen before include "Look at lecherously" , "Amorous glance" , "Gawp" , "Stare at in a lecherous manner" , "Look flirtatiously at" .)