Ideal fellow (8)
I believe the answer is:
academic
I believe this clue is a double definition.
'ideal' is the first definition.
(thesaurus)
'fellow' is the second definition.
(I've seen this before)
(Other definitions for academic that I've seen before include "Scholarly (person)" , "Of theoretical interest, or scholarly" , "Of purely theoretical interest" , "Of theoretical interest, no practical application" , "Not expected to produce any practical result" .)