Having more excellence uncovered three times in the academic year? (6)
I believe the answer is:
neater
'in the academic year?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'having more excellence uncovered three times' is the wordplay.
'having more' becomes 'ne' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'excellence' becomes 'class' (I've seen this before).
'uncovered' indicates the central letters.
'three times' becomes 'ter' (see Chambers).
The centre of 'class' is 'a'.
'ne'+'a'+'ter'='NEATER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for neater that I've seen before include "Better" , "More spick and span" , "approaching apple-pie order" , "Tidier" , "More tidy and orderly" .)