Academics in hollow (5)
I believe the answer is:
basin
'hollow' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'academics in' is the wordplay.
'academics' becomes 'bas' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'bas'+'in'='BASIN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for basin that I've seen before include "Large bowl" , "Bowl-shaped vessel" , "container" , "Sink for washing" , "Stoup" .)