Culmination of cases of academic malpractice (4)

I believe the answer is:

acme

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'culmination' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'cases of academic malpractice' is the wordplay.
'cases of' suggests removing the centre.
'malpractice' becomes 'me' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'academic' with its centre taken out is 'ac'.
'ac'+'me'='ACME'

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for acme that I've seen before include "'Highest point, apex (4)'" , "Height of achievement" , "Culminating point" , "Top; peak" , "Pinnacle" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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