One Nation has announced a policy that would bar international students who drop out of their courses from appealing to the Australian Review Tribunal and would require them to leave Australia before applying for further study. The move, unveiled this week, targets a corner of the student visa system that Pauline Hanson says is being used to stay in the country after study plans fall apart.
The announcement lands at a time when international students in Australia are already at the center of arguments about migration, housing and population growth. Hanson said the party’s proposal was aimed at what it sees as abuse of student visas through course-hopping, bridging visas and protection visa applications, with some students having “no intention to study” and using the visa route for work and economic opportunities instead.
The party’s media release leaned hard on numbers to make that case. It said the number of former student visa holders on bridging visas had risen from around 13,000 to more than 107,000 over three years. It also singled out Central Queensland University, questioning why it operates a Sydney campus and citing a reported 57.2 per cent first-year international student dropout rate there in 2023.
That criticism fits into a broader campaign argument that universities have become too dependent on foreign student money. Hanson said the system is being scammed and that universities addicted to foreign student money are part of the problem. The proposal is also being rolled out against the backdrop of a January 2026 Menzies Research Centre report that examined student visa holders who remained in Australia on bridging visas while further applications and appeals were processed.
What One Nation has not said is how many students would be caught by the appeal ban or how quickly any change could be put in place. For now, the policy is a signal that dropped-out students are being pulled deeper into the fight over who gets to stay in Australia, and on what terms, after the study route is no longer open to them.
