Answer arrived about French from universities (7)
I believe the answer is:
academe
'universities' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'answer arrived about french from' is the wordplay.
'answer' becomes 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A).
'arrived' becomes 'came' (come can mean to appear or arrive).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'french from' becomes 'de' ('from' in French).
'came' going around 'de' is 'cademe'.
'a'+'cademe'='ACADEME'
(Other definitions for academe that I've seen before include "intellectual world" , "The teaching environment" , "learned environment" , "The world of education" , "college" .)