The phrase footed the bill” in the first paragraph mostly means

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Long gone but not forgotten are those carefree student days of shared showers, derelict rental properties and parties where the booze always ran out before midnight. Being a student was quite a privilege in the good old days when local authorities and the governmentfooted the billand there was almost certainly a job at the end of it.
In the early 1960s, only 4% of school leavers went to university, rising to around 14% by the end of the 1970s. Nowadays, more than 40% of young people start undergraduate degrees – but it comes at a cost. Today’s students leave with debts of £40,000 and upwards to pay back over their working lives.
So how has the student experience changed over the years? Parents looking back on their university lives are amazed at the luxuries their sons and daughters enjoy, such as en suite bathrooms, flatscreen TVs and leather sofas. Student accommodation has improved but rents have soared and take up a bigger whack of the living cost loans, leaving today’s undergraduates little better off than their parents.
They still party and have a good time, but students are working harder and more consistently, their parents believe. Partly, it is the move away from “big bang” finals to continuous assessment,theysay, but also the pressure to get that all-important 2:1 or above degree classification. One-third of students were awarded firsts or 2:1s in 1970. Last year it was over two-thirds: 70%.
Today’s students are more career-orientated and under pressure to take on extracurricular activities, more responsibilities and work experience to compete in the graduate jobs market. Meeting people, making friends for life and discovering new interests: these are the things that have not changed for students who are following the same route to independence as their parents.
(Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/)