Oh, I know it’s first world. DH is British (we’ve been married 28 years and he hasn’t become a US Citizen, only has a green card because he still thinks of himself as British) and we have relatives over there. Wasn’t implying that the colleges are anything other than top rate - in fact I think his offer from London School of Economics was the most “glam” and interesting of all the schools he was admitted to! But from DH and his relatives’ description, the system is very much more hands off, treats scholars as adults. Nobody checks to see if they come to class, there is no checking of homework, etc. In other words, if you want to never set foot in class and just shot up for finals, in most cases (dependent on course of study) you can do that.
I actually agree with that system and hate some of the American micromanaging and babysitting. Students should be mature enough to choose if they want or need to do an assignment or to be in a particular lecture. But the converse of that hands off approach is that there is little safety net to notice if a kid gets depressed and spends 2 weeks alone in his room, etc.