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Germany would be a good example. The Germans spend proportionally more to support education than here in the US. Granted they do require people to make career choices much earlier, and to demonstrate ability to meet standards within a given field at a much higher level. However, once the choice is made, the German system provides much more support, especially at the Bach level.
In my experience, German students who transfer into US colleges are two to three years ahead of their American comrades. As this is so, exactly what have the American students been paying for? In conversations with the German students I have yet to hear of 2 million dollar bell towers, obscene rates of pay for college presidents, and tenured faculty who are seen less on campus than UFO's or bigfoot.
In part the problems with the loans, and education costs are directly the result of the US government substantially curtailing support. Such as pell grants and other supportive programs are a good example. Since the 2000's students have been compelled to borrow more to pay for escalating education costs, because other means of aid have been hacked. And for non legacy students that's a major issue. Even more so because the fields their social status allow them to easily enter, generally do not pay anything close to the wages compensatory for the costs of the education. Teaching certificate programs being a good example of this problem.
The current predation on students, especially in regards to loans, does seem to be predominately a US issue.
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