Mate’s laughter about university provoking fuss (8)
I believe the answer is:
brouhaha
'fuss' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'mate's laughter about university' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'laughter' could be 'haha' (ha-ha is a kind of laughter) and 'haha' is found in the answer.
'university' could be 'ou' and 'ou' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'provoking' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for brouhaha that I've seen before include "Outcry" , "Noisy, excited and confused commotion" , "Storm" , "Noisy fuss" , "Overexcited critical response" .)