In an effort to standardize European systems many courses are trying to get rid of them because foreign students are particularly weak in an oral defense.
Turns out we were right for once :D
No, they really weren't. These were state school's in 1970's eastern Europe. No tuition, and neither parent was from a privileged background.
That didn't universally equate to privilege in a class or wealth sense for a number of countries.
eg: https://www.whitlam.org/whitlam-legacy-education
was the system I was educated under, when I took orals it was a result of being a scruffy kid that wore no shoes but passed general high school and math talent exams better than all but three others my age in the state.
( For interest, the three that ramked higher than myself that year in Tertiary admissions exams were all educated in expensive private schools in the capital city- I got by on School of the Air, a bunch of books and a few years at a smallish remote high school in far north W.Australia
* https://www.aades.edu.au/members/wa
1970's ham radio running off truck batteries - pre internet for that area, although we did experiment with text over phone line and packet radio.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel
)