Head of department in hostel's chalet abroad took charge (6,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
called the shots
'took charge' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'head of department in hostel's chalet abroad' is the wordplay.
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'abroad' is an anagram indicator (abroad can mean moving around).
The first letter of 'department' is 'd'.
'hostels'+'chalet'='hostelschalet'
'hostelschalet' with letters rearranged gives 'calletheshots'.
'd' placed inside 'calletheshots' is 'CALLED THE SHOTS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for called the shots that I've seen is " Exercised authority, was in charge".)