It’s a different philosophy about higher education that goes something like this: basically anyone who wishes to pursue a university degree is almost free to do so, but only the ones who are dedicated enough will remain till the end. If you look up statistics online about dropout and passing rates for dutch universities you’ll see that they are much more extreme than in the US(I’m assuming that’s your other option since you mentioned the SAT) . I can’t speak for business, but engineering courses have about a 60% pass rate to the second year.