Writes a short novel about university (7)
I believe the answer is:
authors
'writes' is the definition.
(authoring is a kind of writing)
'a short novel about university' is the wordplay.
'novel' indicates an anagram.
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'university' becomes 'u' (**).
'short' with letters rearranged gives 'thors'.
'thors' placed around 'u' is 'uthors'.
'a'+'uthors'='AUTHORS'
(Other definitions for authors that I've seen before include "Writers, originators" , "People who write" , "Writers, generators" , "Writes" , "Pens" .)