Projects were typically like a month long for us as well, with some spanning 2 or maybe 3 months.

I don't know I believe that something like TDD should be something that's taught to us from the beginning. In my mind it should essentially be a foundation skill that becomes a platform from which you can grow from. If you are teaching a sorting algorithm then just hedge it into the class that they should split it into x methods and each method should pass test y.

I do agree with your comment on how University should be concentrating on the why but showing good practices along-side the why can't hurt, even if it was just, say bonus marks for using a testing framework or following a style guide etc.