The perception of teachers is unanimously alarming, and performance rates, despite continuous reductions in content and level, as well as statistical adjustments, are increasingly lower. The causes are varied: deficiencies in preparation, a low prior academic level, defective prior training, and a widespread deficit in skills such as academic writing, synthesis capacity, critical analysis, and argumentation, as well as an inexplicably low level of comprehension and reasoning.

The disparity in performance—that is, the gap between students who manage to adapt to the university environment and those who do not—is widening, with the number of students struggling to adapt increasing. This leads to a bleak outlook, where students who seemingly progressed through previous educational stages successfully are ultimately unable to adjust and end up dropping out.

In this paper, we aim to analyze these issues and the trends of recent years, particularly in the post-pandemic period, where these problems have been worsening. Additionally, we seek to propose possible solutions by examining these challenges, including the absence or inefficacy of academic filters, disregard for in-person learning, alarmingly low and insufficient mathematical proficiency, and course programs that are disconnected from students' actual competencies.

Keywords: Education, competency, mathematics, university, drop out.