Stops academic on Novia Scotia (4)
I believe the answer is:
bans
'stops' is the definition.
(a ban might prevent or stop something)
'academic on novia scotia' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'academic' could be 'ba' and 'ba' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bans that I've seen before include "Officially prohibits" , "Prohibiting decree" , "Forbids" .)