Graduate stands outside canteen over by the French group (8)
I believe the answer is:
assemble
'the french group' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'graduate stands outside canteen over' is the wordplay.
'graduate' becomes 'elba' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'stands outside' indicates putting letters inside.
'canteen' becomes 'mess' (I've seen this before).
'over' says the letters should be written backwards.
'elba' enclosing 'mess' is 'elbmessa'.
'elbmessa' back-to-front is 'ASSEMBLE'.
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for assemble that I've seen before include "Gather or collect together" , "Gather together at meeting place" , "Build" , "Put together all the components" , "Bring/come together" .)