RE: What system for a college class?
Why not provide specific details to what is being used? Just post the various part numbers (or offer a technical description) and include the operating freq and RF power. Provide details to the Tx and Rx antennas, as well as the video camera. Photos of the bits and how it is mounted on the model would be good too.
If this is a College/University effort then there is probably some written documentation that describes the project in great detail. Just post the link to the project for us to see what could be wrong.
Why? There is a chance that what they have can be salvaged. Perhaps it is a poor installation or ill-equipped antenna setup. If there is interference with the R/C gear then I suspect they are in the ham band's 430-450Mhz RF area. Moving up to the newer amateur radio 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz spectrum will usually tame that.
What you should use will depend on your goals. Hopefully the instructor's documentation will describe that too.