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Article History

Received: 18 December 2023

Accepted: 24 April 2025

First Online: 1 July 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This study has received a waiver of ethical approval on January 23, 2023, from the Research Ethics Committee at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico. The ethical approval number for this study is IFE-2023-01. All information is anonymized and the submission does not include images that may identify the person. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

: The informed consent was obtained from May to July 2023. Prior to initiating the research activities, the authors provided all participants with written informed consent. A total of 1980 students and 10 faculty members and administrators from higher education institutions took part in the study through two main ways: an online survey using Google form and a series of virtual focus groups using Zoom. All participants received comprehensive information regarding the objectives of the study, their rights within the research process, and the extent of their consent. Their involvement was strictly voluntary. They were also guaranteed that all data collected would be treated with strict confidentiality and utilized solely for academic and research-related purposes. Throughout the implementation of both the survey and the focus groups, the researchers maintained rigorous adherence to ethical research standards.