At least in Belgium it's quite common for a lot of students to fail the first year (partly due to the difficulty, partly due to partying instead of studying). But it's not like it's really free, the tuition is cheap but the accomodation is expensive. I also don't think it's particularly difficult on purpose to filter out students, it's just that it's not overly expensive and a lot of people are unsure about what to study.
michaelt|1 month ago
That's quite a high non-completion rate - but it's nowhere near 99%.
[1] https://nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2023/42-6-of-new-stude...