When I went to University in Britain, not only was tuition free but I was given a grant to live on.

By the time my daughters went to University tuition was still free, but the grants had gone and had been replaced by (inadequate) loans and I ended up paying most of my daughters' living costs. In fact I had to tell my elder daughter I could not help with funding her for an MSc because the younger one deserved her share for her first degree

Now Universities in the UK charge fees. The official line is they can charge up to £3000. In fact the vast majority are charging the full £3000. They cannot afford otherwise as funding to Universities has been falling in real terms for a very long time now. I know, I worked in one.

There is still one thing, though. The fees at Oxford or Cambridge are the same as the University I used to work for. Nevertheless, a recent figure I saw stated that 49% of Oxford Undergraduates came from Public Schools (= very expensive private schools) Which are attended by only 7% of the school population.