Possible Clues:

• Plant class in US universities
• Eight prestigious US universities
• Group of long-established universities of eastern USA including Harvard and Yale
• Cathedral backing on to Roman square — fit for the best colleges
• I leave guy floundering in a prestigious academic group
• Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale
• Prestigious college group
• Harvard University is the oldest in this group
• Yale, Harvard etc
• Frantic Yale fugitive not fit, sadly, for such a place