Franco and Stalin both increased University funding.
Cuba to this day spends more of its GDP on education than any other nation on Earth.
Syria (under Assad) spent more than South Korea, Afghanistan more than Greece, Iran more than the UK, Egypt more than Ireland, Iraq (under Sadam) more than Japan, Saudi Arabia more than Canada, etc.
You can look it up, the more totalitarian the government the higher the spend on education not less.
There's three big cohorts that heavily fund their University systems:
1. The Nordic States
2. Former British colonies
3. Dictatorships
