The university must focus on developing competencies and skills for professional, emotional, environmental and management performance, and this implies applying learning theories. To achieve this, teachers must apply learning theories. In a documentary research study, 32 texts were analyzed, and the documentary review technique was used to collect information. The results showed that learning theories such as complexity, constructivism, enactivism, connectivism, potential approach and meaningful learning are essential to improve university pedagogical models and must be applied to generate equitable beings capable of solving problems.