University employee of no practical use (8)
I believe the answer is:
academic
I believe this is a double definition.
'university employee' is the first definition.
(I know this)
'of no practical use' is the second definition.
(academic can mean theoretical or not practical)
(Other definitions for academic that I've seen before include "Scholarly; irrelevant" , "Scholastic" , "Scholarly: hypothetical" , "Well-read" , "Scholar - of no practical importance" .)