I am guessing that they wrote it with either ASP.NET or PHP/MySQL. I hope that they used php/mysql, because to me that is just easier and plays with android a lot better. I find it kinda dumb that they won't even let you know what language they wrote it in. I guess they don't know that a copy is the finest form of flattery. As for the database being hosted by your uni, I imagine that they could have had access to part of it. You can give access to certain tables in a database. I can try and help you a little bit more but honestly this is a pretty big project for one person to take on.
