Epoch: A couple of thoughts.
If I am reading Geronimoo's simulator correctly (a big if), the Gardens/Workshop combo without a Village takes around 20 turns to finish the game. This is not blazing fast I would think. The problem is usually that the Gardens player will usually have an insurmountable VP lead at that point, but, there are ways around this with either a mega-turn deck, some alternative VP, sharing the Gardens run effectively and so on.
But this might be a semantic disagreement. In one sense it is very fast; not many solo strategies reliably end the game in 20 turns. In another sense it is fairly slow; 20 turns gives the opponent all kinds of time to build up an engine to take plenty of VP. In far less than twenty turns you can easily pull off a KC-KC-Goons-Masq pin, a huge Bridge engine, etc. which will end the game before the Gardens player can build too big of a lead. So maybe we just disagree about the word and not the actual speed.
In regards to University, it costs you two early turns to pick up a University (to buy the potion and the University in lieu of Workshops/Gardens). But, you get those two turns back if you play the University at least twice and gain Workshops (which you will get to play at least twice and likely five or six times in approximately 20 turns). Further, if you get the benefit of one or two double Workshop turns this speeds you up even further. I don't know the probabilities, but you are guaranteed to get the tempo costs back (and then some) on the gains and the extra Workshop or two you could get in suggests that this should be faster than just going Workshop/Gardens/Estates.
There is a further question of whether the Potion and University buys slow you down too much after your first reshuffle since you only have one Workshop instead of two. But, you are more likely to hit 3 or 4 on turns 3 and 4 than you are later in the game, so maybe it balances out.
Now, if your opponent is going Workshop/Gardens as well, this delay is probably too much to overcome. But, University/Workshop/Gardens should be faster than straightforward Workshop/Gardens. Is it faster than Village/Workshop/Gardens? I have no clue.
As far as tuning the bots go, the question seems like it should be whether the Monument player can split the Gardens 3-5 or 4-4 and still hit a few Provinces. The extra VP from Monument and enough time to transition to a couple of Provinces (while the Gardens player attempts to empty Estates and Workshops) should put the Monument player ahead I would think. So, does the Monument player hit 4 constantly enough on turns 3 -8 to take enough Gardens compared to the number of Workshops that the Gardens player hits and is he still able to transition for a few Provinces? I would think so anyway.