How selective was the entry into tertiary studies in your country from the 1950/60’s?

Edit: it is about how many students could get into tertiary studies from the 1950s all the way up to today.

I’m interested in the history of education here. In New Zealand I know relatively few people went into tertiary studies before the 1980s but they could still get into it. Today it is about 37 percent of all New Zealanders.

Meanwhile you also have Hong Kong where many people wanted to receive tertiary education but was barred by highly selective school leaving public exams until very recently: they didn’t get into the university because they were part of the 90th percentile and not the 98th. In the 1960s and 70s only 3% could receive tertiary education in Hong Kong. This rose to 18% by my own age group (I was a teenager in the 1990s) and now 50%.

So was it ever as elitist selective in any countries in Europe after WWII, as Hong Kong was before the 2000’s that only 20% of high school students could get into tertiary studies, or even 3-5% of that year’s graduates like Hong Kong even deep into the 1980s?

Thanks.