One Nation Bars Appeals For Dropout International Students In Australia
One Nation has announced a policy for international students in australia who drop out of their courses, saying they would be barred from appealing to the Australian Review Tribunal and would have to leave Australia before applying for further study. Pauline Hanson said some students had “no intention to study” and were using the visa system for work and economic opportunities.
Hanson said, “The system is being scammed, and universities addicted to foreign student money are part of the problem.” The party linked the plan to its wider claim that student visa rules are being exploited through course-hopping and long stays on bridging visas.
Pauline Hanson Targets Visa Appeals
The proposal would remove a route that can matter most when a student drops out and then tries to challenge a decision about staying in Australia. Under the new policy, those students would not be able to appeal to the Australian Review Tribunal and would have to leave before seeking another place in higher education.
One Nation framed the change around the scale of student visa holders remaining in Australia on bridging visas. Its media release said the number had risen from around 13,000 to more than 107,000 over three years, a figure it used to argue the current system is being pushed far beyond its original purpose.
Central Queensland University In Focus
The party also singled out Central Queensland University, questioning why it operates a Sydney campus. Its media release pointed to a reported 57.2 per cent first-year international student dropout rate at the university in 2023, using that figure to argue that some students are not following the study pathway they entered on.
January 2026 brought a separate report from the Menzies Research Centre, International Student Course-Hopping: University Complicity and Government Inaction. The overlap between that report and One Nation’s media release places the policy inside a broader argument about migration, housing and population growth, with student visas now tied directly to those wider pressures.
What The Proposal Changes
For students who discontinue their courses, the practical effect is straightforward: a dropped course would no longer be treated as a pathway into a tribunal appeal and a new study application from inside Australia. The policy would force the next move to happen outside the country, making the exit itself part of the process.
That shift also puts universities under sharper scrutiny. Hanson said universities are part of the problem, and One Nation is casting the issue as one of incentives: institutions want the money, while the visa system, in the party’s view, is being used by people who never planned to study. The announcement leaves those students facing a narrower set of options if the proposal advances, with the appeal route cut off and further study pushed beyond Australia’s borders.
