Students take First Lady to be equal (5)
I believe the answer is:
level
'be equal' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'students take first lady' is the wordplay.
'students' becomes 'LL' (two abbreviations for learner).
'take' is an insertion indicator.
'first lady' becomes 'eve' (first woman in the Bible).
'll' going around 'eve' is 'LEVEL'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for level that I've seen before include "Palindromic tier?" , "Storey - stage" , "Regular" , "Horizontal plane - a palindrome" , "Flush" .)