The example above may have been a bit misleading imo. In some countries the filtering process is put inside the program itself rather than in state wide exams, entrance exams or amount of tuition fees. There is always a filtering process somewhere. Not sure where OP was though.

any private university, yes. I have seen state-supported universities in certain countries with very high failure rates for certain programs (I'm assuming 99% was an exaggeration for something more like "the vast majority failed").

In my state uni 75% was normal a couple decades ago, 50% after first year. 99% is extreme, but I can imagine that being true with uni leadership on board.