Glad I went to university in Australia where "really expensive" isn't a problem for domestic students.

For citizens, the government subsidizes it and pays 50-80% of the cost depending on the course (higher priority areas have better coverage). The remaining cost can be covered by an interest-free loan through the government (called HECS-HELP), and you only have to start paying off the loan once you earn more than AU$70k/year, which removes a lot of the stress. The repayments are automatically withheld by your employer as tax, the same way they withhold income tax.

(even though there's no interest, the loan is indexed for inflation once per year)