Scoundrel about to attend college in US city - it’s topical (8)
I believe the answer is:
currency
'us city it's topical' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'scoundrel about to attend college' is the wordplay.
'scoundrel' becomes 'cur' (I've seen this before).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'to attend' becomes 'reny' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'college' becomes 'c'.
'reny' going around 'c' is 'rency'.
'cur'+'rency'='CURRENCY'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for currency that I've seen before include "(A country's) money" , "Money in accepted use" , "Bread" , "euro?" , "General acceptance" .)