Who benefits from fees-free? The swing from polytechnic to university 7 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM 5 minutes to read Fees-free has seen a higher proportion of students head to university instead of institutes of technology or polytechnics. Photo / Mark Mitchell Derek Cheng is a political reporter for the New Zealand Heraldderek.cheng@nzme.co.nz The Government's flagship fees-free policy seems to be sending more students to university at the expense of other tertiary education sectors. Data released to the Herald under the Official Information Act shows that more than half of the fees-free students in 2019 went to university, while 77 per cent of those university students came from decile 6 to 10 schools.