In the Netherlands they recently (3 years ago) scrapped the "studiefinanciering" (study financing) which was a grant gifted to college student to support them in their living. It was replaced by a loan type system where students are able to lend money from the goverment against a 0% (for now) interest rate.
You have 35 years to pay back the loan, with an interest rate set every 5 years. You only start paying back the loan if you make more then the the minimum wage (or if you make more then 143% of the minimum wage if you have children)[1].
Defaulting on the loan is possible, although i have no clue how easy that is. (It probably involves being placed under "Schuldsanering"[2])
The system has been highly critized as getting a loan is extremely easy and many first year students just loan the maximum amount allows. (which is a staggering 1300 euro a month, for comparison, the old system was a grant of rougly 400 euro a month).
College costs itself is funded mainly by the goverment, as both Universities of applied science and universities of science have major oversight from the goverment.
The subsidized collegecosts are the same for everyone regardless of major(2000 euro a year roughly). This subsidizing only applies on your first bachelor of first masters though. If you want to do more then one bachelor/masters, you pay the full price, which is depend on major.
Any folks from countries where education is for sale want to chime in on what it looks like at their end of the woods?