Academic types (8)
I believe the answer is:
scholars
'academic types' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
This is all the clue.
(Other definitions for scholars that I've seen before include "Pupils, students" , "Learned people, especially in the humanities" , "Students or learned people" , "Learned people, usually academics" , "Learned people who have studied long" .)