> First, I didn't work with the right universities. Now the students I work with "didn't pay attention".

I can only say that my university-time experience was so much different, and I do observe a similar interest among younger students. So I am hypothesizing what could be the reasons.

But concerning your point, I would indeed claim that the hypotheses "wrong university" and "students did not pay attention" are positively correlated: I think a university where many students are not actually not very interested, excited and curious about the topics that are taught in the lectures does not form a good learning environment.