Styptic required by north American ex-student (7)
I believe the answer is:
alumnus
'student' is the definition.
(I know that alumnus is a type of student)
'styptic required by north american' is the wordplay.
'styptic' becomes 'alum' (alum is a kind of styptic).
'required by' says to put letters next to each other.
'north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
'alum'+'n'+'us'='ALUMNUS'
'ex' acts as a link.
This may not be right. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alumnus that I've seen before include "School or college graduate" , "Old pupil" , "Ex-pupil" , "Former pupil or student" , "Former college pupil" .)