University little short of a gem (5)

I believe the answer is:

aston

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'university' is the definition.
(university in Birmingham)

'short of a gem' is the wordplay.
'short of' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'shorter' mean this).
'gem' becomes 'stone' (I've seen this in another clue).
'a'+'stone'='astone'
'astone' with its last letter taken off is 'ASTON'.

'little' is the link.
This may not be right. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for aston that I've seen before include "A Birmingham university" , "Area of Birmingham" , "district of Birmingham" , "- Villa, football club" , "Premiership FC" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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