Transfer from extremely respectable US university (5)
I believe the answer is:
remit
'transfer' is the definition.
(I know that pay is the is a more specific form of the action of remit.)
'extremely respectable us university' is the wordplay.
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the extremes of the word are used).
'us university' becomes 'MIT' (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
'respectable' with its middle removed is 're'.
're'+'mit'='REMIT'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for remit that I've seen before include "Job specification" , "Area(s) of responsibility or to be dealt with" , "Assigned task or area" , "Pay; mail" , "Send - terms of reference" .)