Yankee stops lecturers travelling up for meeting (5)
I believe the answer is:
synod
'meeting' is the definition.
(synod is a kind of meeting)
'yankee stops lecturers travelling up' is the wordplay.
'yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'stops' indicates putting letters inside.
'lecturers' becomes 'dons' (don can mean a university academic).
'travelling up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in a down clue, letters go up).
'y' placed within 'dons' is 'donys'.
'donys' written backwards gives 'SYNOD'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for synod that I've seen before include "Council of clergy to discuss policy" , "Church assembly" , "Assembly of the clergy" , "Forum for discussing" , "Council of bishops" .)