Well Adium is specifically for Mac OSX so I cannot really help there as far as that particular program since I dont have OSX setup to look at. However I will give it a shot based on the last time I ran it.
The first thing to work out is if the Uni allows a direct connection to the internet or not, and if not, whether they use a Proxy for external traffic.
I will presume your friend has a direct connection, if he doesnt ask me later and I will go further into another solution.
Under the options menu for Adium there is a setting to use a HTTP Proxy. Find this and then get a working Proxy from the list here:
http://www.digitalcybersoft.com/Prox....shtml?CONNECT
You may have to try a few diferent ones till you find one which allows the required ports.
If all goes fine you should be able to connect with Adium perfectly.