I think it was worse at my school - a full 50% attrition in the first year, and we only had STEM degrees, so there was no switching major to something "easy."

I think schools could do a much better job preparing students with good study habits, time management and generally more "grit" before entering university. Sure there are some really bright engineering students, but even many of those faced a setback at some point. The thing most engineering grads share is perseverance and study skills.

Another problem I see, in the US at least, is we turn kids off from entire professions because we seem to have a societal disdain for math. "Oh, math's not important - you won't use that anyway." That should never be a response when a student is struggling. More like: "these are some abstract concepts than can be difficult at first, but that's normal and you can overcome this - let's try again." There are a lot of students who could have been capable, but have given up on math before they even get a chance to study it at a higher level.