Academic lie about personal description (7)
I believe the answer is:
profile
'personal description' is the definition.
(a profile is a description of a person)
'academic lie about' is the wordplay.
'academic' becomes 'prof' (short for professor).
'about' is an anagram indicator.
'lie' anagrammed gives 'ile'.
'prof'+'ile'='PROFILE'
(Other definitions for profile that I've seen before include "Sideways outline" , "Level of public recognition" , "Sideways view" , "record" , "Side view; portrait in words" .)