Scholar head of academy can put in directory (8)
I believe the answer is:
latinist
'directory' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'scholar head of academy can put' is the wordplay.
'scholar' becomes 'l'.
'head of' suggests taking the first letters.
'can' becomes 'tin' (synonyms).
'put' becomes 'ist' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'academy' is 'a'.
'l'+'a'+'tin'+'ist'='LATINIST'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for latinist that I've seen before include "My specialist subject may be Ovid" , "I should understand the -um ending!" , "language expert" .)