I can't not imagine that the least that would happen to you if you got caught torrenting and someone didn't like it is that you'd get a strongly worded letter from your Uni.
Otherwise, while I'm reasonably certain that Unis cannot see your VPN activity, they would either probably not check, or not care anyway. There's probably plenty of students at your Uni who are doing the same thing you are, but with far less precautions.
You should not forget about using a VPN, as it is the only way to visit all the necessary sites and interfere with your personal work on the Internet. I use a VPN often and advise anyone using one, find out more here https://clearvpn.com/blog/how-to-block-websites-on-iphone/. By encrypting your usage data, a VPN allows you to keep your activities undetected and also you don't have to worry about security.