Place ideal to host university is tense (10)
I believe the answer is:
pluperfect
'is tense' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'place ideal' is the wordplay.
'place' becomes 'plu' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'ideal' becomes 'perfect' ('perfect' can be similar in meaning to 'ideal').
'plu'+'perfect'='PLUPERFECT'
'to host university' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pluperfect that I've seen before include "(In grammar) a tense - per cup left (anag)" , "Tense with "had" and past participle" , "Verbal tense" .)