Medic, year upon year, accepting student in formal style (5)

I believe the answer is:

dryly

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'accepting student in formal style' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'medic year upon year' is the wordplay.
'medic' becomes 'dr' (doctor).
'year' becomes 'y'.
'upon' says to put letters next to each other.
'year' becomes 'ly' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dr'+'y'+'ly'='DRYLY'

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(Another definition for dryly that I've seen is " with frigid manner".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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