Study finishing early without the material (7)
I believe the answer is:
leather
'material' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'study finishing early without the' is the wordplay.
'study' becomes 'learn' (learning is a kind of studying).
'finishing early' means to remove the last letter.
'without' is an insertion indicator ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'learn' with its last letter removed is 'lear'.
'lear' going around 'the' is 'LEATHER'.
(Other definitions for leather that I've seen before include "Flog; hide" , "Material made from animal skin" , "calf" , "Morocco, perhaps" , "Treated animal skin" .)