Crossword Genius

British university’s short challenge becoming shorter (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

brusquer

'shorter' is the definition.
(brusque means short or curt)

'british university's short challenge' is the wordplay.
'british' becomes 'br' (abbreviation for British).
'university's' becomes 'u's' (abbreviation for university).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'challenge' becomes 'query'.
'query' with its last letter taken off is 'quer'.
'br'+'us'+'quer'='BRUSQUER'

'becoming' acts as a link.

(Another definition for brusquer that I've seen is " shorter".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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