End of an academic period in America (8)
I believe the answer is:
terminus
'end' is the definition.
(I know that terminus is a type of end)
'an academic period in america' is the wordplay.
'an academic period' becomes 'term' (I've seen this before).
'america' becomes 'US' (United States).
'term'+'in'+'us'='TERMINUS'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for terminus that I've seen before include "End station" , "End - objective" , "End (of rail line)" , "End of bus/rail route" , "Destination point" .)