Managing debts at university, might one signal bitterness? (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
taste bud
'signal bitterness?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'managing debts at university might one' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'university' could be 'u' (abbreviation for university) and 'u' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'debts' is 'stebd' which is present in the left over letters.
'one' could be 'a' (a thing is one thing) and 'a' is found in the answer.
A single letter 't' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for taste bud that I've seen before include "Tongue nerve ending" , "Flavour-sensitive cell on the tongue" , "Sensitive part of tongue" , "Bust date (anag.)" , "Sensor on the tongue" .)