Notional professor? (8)
I believe the answer is:
academic
I believe this clue is a double definition.
'notional' is the first definition.
(thesaurus)
'professor?' is the second definition.
(professor is a kind of academic)
(Other definitions for academic that I've seen before include "Scholar - of no practical relevance" , "A person studying" , "fellow" , "of educational kind" , "Scholar - of no practical importance" .)