Abuse me sternly employing academic term (8)
I believe the answer is:
semester
'academic term' is the definition.
(semester is a kind of academic term)
'abuse me sternly employing' is the wordplay.
'employing' indicates a hidden word (the answer is used or employed by the clue).
'SEMESTER' is hidden within 'abuse me sternly'.
(Other definitions for semester that I've seen before include "study period" , "half-year course of study" , "Half-year academic course" , "(US) university term" , "Steers me towards university term" .)