Dissolute academic losing it in dispute (10)
I believe the answer is:
profligate
'dissolute' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'academic losing it in dispute' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'academic' could be 'prof' (short for professor) and 'prof' is located in the answer.
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for profligate that I've seen before include "Wildly extravagant" , "Husband would not be" , "extravagant type" , "Recklessly wasteful" , "Dissolute" .)