Donnish boss lives outside Oxford Universty (8)
I believe the answer is:
studious
'donnish' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'boss lives outside oxford universty' is the wordplay.
'boss' becomes 'stud' (both can mean a metal decoration).
'lives' becomes 'is' ('be' can be a synonym of 'live').
'outside oxford' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'universty' becomes 'ou' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'is' enclosing 'ou' is 'ious'.
'stud'+'ious'='STUDIOUS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for studious that I've seen before include "Deliberate and painstaking - preparing for exam?" , "with great care" , "Bookish, sedulous" , "Bookish, scholarly" , "Like a good schoolboy" .)