MANCHESTER'S UNIVERSITY Challenge team was beaten to a place in the final of the BBC Quiz show by Christ Church College, Oxford.
The team lost out in a 220 – 170 point dogfight. Despite a late rally the Manchester team were unable to clinch a place in the final.
The popular TV quiz put the contestants on the spot with testing questions ranging from classical music and literature to chemistry and geography.
Team-member Sean Furlong, an Archeology student on his year out in industry, said it was great to have reached the semi-finals.
"You always hope you can take these things as far as you can. On the day Christ Church College were just faster than us," he said.
"It was lots of fun. Winning the quarterfinal was a surprise. I was thinking all the way through they're too close and will make their way back into this."
Critics said that the Manchester team had an unfair advantage because they were "too old". The Oxford team that defeated them were entirely made up of Oxford undergraduates.
Languishing 100 points behind Christ Church with less than five minutes to go, it looked unlikely that Manchester would be able to stage a last minute comeback.
"One always wants to win. After a few practice runs all we were doing was to try and come up with the answer before the other team", said Mr Furlong.
"It was an honour to represent the university and none of us expected to get this far."
In 2006 The University of Manchester won University Challenge. Last year they finished as runners up.
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