Collocations for academic - adj.

be
become

merely, purely, strictly
The distinction being made is purely academic.

largely, rather, somewhat
overly (esp. AmE)
The writers' approach is not overly academic.

Academic is used with these nouns:
ability, achievement, appointment, arena, article, aspiration, background, blog, boycott, brilliance, calendar, career, circle, colleague, community, competence, conference, controversy, course, credentials, criticism, culture, curriculum, debate, discipline, discussion, distinction, economist, enquiry, enterprise, establishment, excellence, exchange, exercise, expertise, failure, field, freedom, gown, historian, honour, institution, integrity, interest, jargon, journal, lawyer, librarian, library, life, medicine, merit, opinion, peer, performance, preparation, prestige, proficiency, programme, progress, prose, prowess, psychologist, psychology, publication, publisher, publishing, pursuit, qualification, question, record, referee, reputation, requirement, research, researcher, respectability, rigour, scholarship, setting, specialist, specialization, sphere, staff, standard, standing, study, subject, success, tenure, text, theology, tradition, training, work, world, writer, writing, year