Puts down university qualifications the second 'e 'ad succeeded (8)

I haven't cracked this one yet — but the brilliant team at Fifteensquared have:

DEGR [e] E (university qualifications), with the second E replaced by ‘AD (from clue text), then S (abbreviation for succeeded). I think “university qualification” in the singular would work better for “degree”; it looks as though we need “degrees” but then “succeeded” is superfluous. UPDATE: Thanks to KVa and Hovis for a better version. DEGR [e] ES (university qualifications), with the second E replaced (succeeded, as in Queen Elizabeth II being succeeded by King Charles III) by ‘AD (from clue text).