Ah. go here for the definition of "clown college". You have to scroll down a very informative page.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/BritishUnis
some background: in 1980, the very last ebbs of the Baby Boomers, born in 1961-62, were coming of age and among other things seeking university places. Their parents had lived in a time of relative prosperity and as people will do in times of prosperity, they started families. So there was a big surge in births in the very early 1960's - a baby bulge. Scroll forward 18 years to when the baby bulge ran into Margaret Thatcher, economic recession and massive cuts in university funding. something had to give, and for me my grades were lousy. Too many eighteen year olds, a lot less opportunities - double whammy. I couldn't get a uni or even a poly place, but I was still desperate to get away from home.
Enter the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI) based on split campuses in Wrexham and at Connah's Quay, on the Flintshire coast. I got onto a lesser HND course. so-so. Heart wasn't really in it - I just wanted to get away from home like most of my mates from school had. Don't underestimate how big a draw that is at eighteen.
And scroll forward a lot further when polytechnics were allowed to rebrand as universities and - incredibly - some tech colleges were allowed to make the leap to university status all in one go. Including NEWI Wrexham. (see tvtropes article...) Leading to...
Clown Colleges
Saying you went to one of these is just embarrassing, since they are near the bottom of the league tables. You might get a pass if you come from a background from which you would hardly expect to go to university at all (e.g. you come from a long line of career petty criminals and you're the first of your family to attend), but even then, it's still not anything to be proud of.
Terry Pratchett makes a lot of this pun, as you'd expect... the Guild of Fools on the Discworld is
literally a clown college. Maybe that was on my mind in the dream last night!