I'm assuming that you've maxed out on most of the upgrades to offensive capabilities in Atomic Age.
If so, I might suggest focusing on the upgrades that provide XP, and target getting to CWA, and park the university for later.
At the university, you could complete the capstone for Hiawatha, Mansa Musa, and Moctezuma,
You could work till the plane upgrade cost reduction under Amelia at the University.
If you have odd workers free for brief duration between upgrades, and if you have gold, sink them into the air defense related researches under Amelia.
Haile Selassie researches till bazooka upgrades could be completed too, if you have oil to spare and some workers for brief duration between upgrades.
Other than these, the rest of the researches at the University could wait, in my opinion, if you're mostly a free to play player like myself.
The rest of the worker time could be directed towards XP yielding upgrades, so that you could move to CWA.
Benefits of this approach:
- Your alliance would benefit from CWA level troop donations.
- You would unlock more of your upgrade options, so that, you'll be able to take better advantage of the weekly discounts.
- After upgrading your offensive capabilities, you'll be able to selectively max out certain key defensive buildings to CWA level. CWA level defensive buildings are far stronger on defense.
- You'll be able to better adapt to balance changes in the game. Shooters are becoming (or, have become) obsolete in favor of bazookas in wars. APCs have more or less phased out tanks. You might really want to wait and see if the time and workers committed to the university leaders with longer research times turn out to be useful in the long run. Given the way the balance changes are happening in the game, I'm not too sure if it's going to be a good idea to commit a lot of time to the older leaders at the university who have insane research times.
- You can avoid being left high and dry once again for want of minimum level requirement when Space Age and subsequent ages are released in the game.
It's for the above mentioned reasons that I might suggest parking the university researches for the time being, and focusing on the upgrades that provide XP.
Again, just explaining my point of view. Others might have alternate suggestions. There's no single right way to play this game.
Hope this helps!
Cheers and happy gaming!