The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word OXBRIDGE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
X
B
R
I
D
G
E
More clues leading to the result OXBRIDGE
- Elite institutions that beast can cross?
- Both universities in Boat Race steer to go across
- Steer game where Blues won
- Ten in old game for top universities paired together?
- Light and dark blue cattle crossing
- Beast on way over to find top universities
- Where you might learn a set of moves for tic-tac-toe game
- Where to learn about cattle crossing
- Neat link to centres of academic excellence
- Where many academics go and yak, maybe getting cross
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "top universities" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case top universities = oxbridge.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.