Because the syllabus in mathematics in Danish high schools has been weakened substantially over the last decade, the university students have experienced new serious problems in their first year learning. This has had the consequence that many students dropped out of their studies and that many other failed at their first year exams.
In the paper we will only deal with the first year courses in mathematics for economists at the University of Copenhagen, and it is told how the teaching in mathematics was changed during the last two years such that the rate og failure dropped considerably. many resources were spent to reach this aim, and it was very important to engage and activate the students and to give them more personal excitement, such that they also obtained higher ability for studies on their own hand.
The result of the new way of teaching was remarkable and the aim of a much lower rate of failure was reached. Futhermore the students saw mathematics not only as a scientific tool useful in modern economic theory but also as a cultural and academic discipline with a long and interesting historical development.