Genghis,
Speaking as someone back at college 30 years after my first visit, what you have to appreciate is that most of the students have had precious little contact with things that actually fly.
For my parents' generation, test pilots were held in the same regard as footballers and other 'celebrities' and teenagers could identify the myriad of new aircraft types produced each year. My generation built Airfix models and a few built flying models. For the current lot, PC-based flight simulators are about as close as most get to flying.
I agree that it all seems a bit 'cart before the horse' to start with the platform and not the mission, but if the objective is to learn what the building blocks are for a UAV system, then the actual payload is secondary.
There are some organisations coming up with truly innovative UAV technology, but for now, anything that gets students 'hands-on' with something that actually flies is a big contribution to their education.
Its very easy for pilots (such as the bulk of the Pprune contributors) to get hung up on the airframe or engine design, but the hardware and software in the flight control and communications, as well as the payload, are the real challenge with UAVs. In fact, the lack of a 'See and Avoid' system, which is not reliant on transmissions from the other aircraft or object, is the biggest single issue preventing the widespread use of UAVs.
Everybody has to start somewhere, so making a UAV from off the shelf components to learn what can and can't be done is just the first step. Then students can move on to the clever stuff like this:
Ultimately what is needed is three or four year courses dedicated to all aspects of unmanned air systems, then the students will have a chance to progress beyond the basics.
As for:
Any manufacturing techniques we'd use in the real world
The Desert Hawk, currently in use in Afganistan, uses technology very close to what you might find in your local model shop in it airframe and propulsion. It may not bear much resemblence to what came out of Kingston, Hatfield or Warton, but its one of the directions that aviation is going, like it or not.