that. Buy him a well preserved 316/318/320 E46. Good fuel economy and cheap to repair if he trashes something. Enough horsepower with the manual to not feel slow and not enough horsepower that he will do anything stupid. The 316 also gets 40mpg at highway speed.
If the OP had asked about the suitability of the 3 and alternate suggestions, I would have put forward a used first generation Volt.
They're solid, reliable cars, and it'll be an effective introduction to electric drive without the challenges of a short range EV and with options if finding charging on campus proves challenging.
At the same time, it's a car you can likely find pretty cheap, which had plenty of smooth electric power and gets great mileage on gas on the rare occasions it needs to use it.
But the OP seemed convinced that a 3 was the way they wanted to go, so I didn't bring it up.