Short answer first: an Australian university reviews your results at the end of each teaching period, and failing half of what you enrolled in is the usual trigger. Melbourne calls the first step at risk, then show cause. Sydney runs at risk, academic caution, then show cause. QUT puts you on probationary enrolment below a semester GPA of 3.0 and excludes you after two such semesters. Adelaide University sends Risk Notice 1, Risk Notice 2, then an Intention to Preclude Notice. UWA suspends for 12 months or excludes indefinitely. Almost nothing happens without a written response from you first.
Every rule below is quoted from the university that publishes it. The words differ more than the substance does, so read your own university's policy for the exact status names and dates, and treat the pattern here as the map.
What counts as unsatisfactory academic progress?
Not a bad mark. A proportion, a repeat, or a specific unit. The review is mechanical and runs on a schedule, usually twice a year, and it looks at what share of your enrolment you actually passed.
- Melbourne. You may be considered at risk if you fail 50 per cent or more of your enrolled subjects in a review period, fail the same elective subject twice, fail a compulsory or core subject, or withdraw from all subjects after the census date.
- Sydney. You may be identified as at risk if you have only successfully completed 50 per cent or less of the credit points attempted, if you fail a barrier unit, compulsory unit, field work, clinical work, practicum or other professional experience for the first time, or if you reach the mid-point of your maximum time limit without 50 per cent of the credit points needed for the award.
- Adelaide University. Progress is unsatisfactory if you failed 50 per cent or more of the courses in a program during a review period while enrolled in more than one course, failed a course you have failed before, or failed a course that is a requirement to progress.
- Griffith. Good progress means completing 50 per cent or more of the courses you enrol in and maintaining a program GPA of at least 3.5. Your level of risk is reported back to you as a colour-coded status.
- QUT. The policy defines unsatisfactory academic performance as achieving a low grade point average, failing a unit more than once, failing a designated unit, exceeding the maximum time limit for the course, or failing to comply with course progress requirements under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000.
That list has a trap in it. A semester in which you withdrew from everything late can count against you, and the review does not care why until you tell it.
When the trigger is one unit, not a bad semester
The single-unit rules catch people who are otherwise fine. Sydney escalates to academic caution if you do not pass a barrier, compulsory or professional experience unit that you had already failed once. QUT puts you on probationary enrolment for a failing grade in a unit you previously failed in any QUT program, and excludes for failing the same unit three times. Griffith lists failing the same course three times, or failing a designated course at all, as grounds for exclusion.
If a unit is a prerequisite for half your degree, treat the second attempt as the one that decides your enrolment, not just your transcript. That is also the attempt where an academic adjustment plan is worth having in place before the assessment, rather than explained afterwards.
What are the thresholds, university by university?
| University | Trigger | First step | Appeal route | Exclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne | Fail 50 per cent or more of enrolled subjects, the same elective twice, a core subject, or withdraw from all after census | At risk notification and a required Return to Good Standing Plan | Academic Secretary within 20 business days, then the Victorian Ombudsman | Termination of enrolment by the Course Academic Progress Committee |
| Sydney | Pass 50 per cent or less of credit points attempted, or fail a barrier or compulsory unit | At risk email, then academic caution with a required adviser appointment | Appeal to your faculty against an exclusion or the re-enrolment conditions, by the route in the decision email | Two years, at least four consecutive semesters, if the Associate Dean finds you have not shown good cause and does not allow re-enrolment with conditions instead |
| QUT | Semester GPA below 3.0, failing a unit more than once, or a designated unit | Probationary enrolment | Appeals Committee reviews every exclusion after a show cause submission | Semester GPA below 3.0 in two consecutive semesters, or the same unit failed three times |
| UWA | Requirements for satisfactory progress are set in the rules for your own course | Status of Suspended or Excluded, with a right to submit a statement | Appeal under Part 6 against the progress status | Suspended 12 months, or excluded indefinitely |
| Adelaide University | Fail 50 per cent or more of courses in a review period, a repeat fail, or a progression course | Risk Notice 1, then Risk Notice 2 with an academic support plan | Review request within 20 working days | Preclusion after an Intention to Preclude Notice |
| Griffith | Complete less than 50 per cent of courses, or program GPA below 3.5 | Colour-coded status, with a Student Success Plan at Orange | Review request within 10 working days of the exclusion notice email, then an appeal through Student review and appeals | Program GPA below 3.5 after an earlier Orange status, the same course failed three times, or a failed designated course; two standard trimesters or nine calendar months, whichever is longer |
The GPA thresholds only make sense against the scale behind them. QUT grades on a 7-point scale where 7 is a High Distinction and 4 a Pass, and Griffith has a seven-point grading scale in which 7 is the highest grade and 1 the lowest, so QUT's 3.0 and Griffith's 3.5 sit below the pass grade of 4 on those scales and are not numbers on Monash's four point scale. How GPA and WAM are calculated in Australia sets out how each kind of scale is built.
What are the stages between a warning and exclusion?
A notification, then a warning with a condition, then show cause, and the first stage is designed to be easy.
The first stage is a notification with a task attached. Melbourne sends an at risk notification and requires a Return to Good Standing Plan, a self-guided reflection tool that asks what affected your studies and what you will do differently. A link goes to your student email after the final results release date, and it must be completed by the deadline in that email or the failure to complete it is recorded on your student record. Melbourne also applies an Unsatisfactory Progress sanction that temporarily restricts changes to your enrolment while the review runs, and says explicitly that it is not a disciplinary action.
The second stage is a warning with a condition. Sydney's academic caution makes an appointment with an academic adviser a requirement rather than a suggestion. Adelaide University's Risk Notice 2 comes with intervention strategies and an invitation to submit an academic support plan describing what you did after Risk Notice 1 and what came of it. Griffith requires a Student Success Plan at Orange status.
The third stage is show cause, or its local equivalent, and that is where your enrolment is actually on the table.
What has to be in a show cause response?
Melbourne's instructions are the most explicit, and they generalise. Your written submission should explain what affected your academic progress, outline any supporting evidence, describe what has changed or will change going forward, and demonstrate your capacity to continue your studies successfully. The committee, it says, will look for evidence, or a commitment from you, that your difficulties have been or will be resolved.
QUT is shorter and stricter on form: the submission must be lodged by the date specified in the notice, be in writing, and state reasons why your circumstances are extenuating. Adelaide University adds a question the others only imply, asking what actions you took as a result of receiving each previous risk notice, including evidence of following any intervention strategies. UWA's rule asks for a statement of the reasons for the failure to make satisfactory progress and of the steps you have taken or are taking to address them, with any available supporting documentary evidence.
What the committee is actually deciding
Not whether you deserve sympathy. Melbourne says the role of its Course Academic Progress Committee is to assess whether you can finish your course and to help with strategies for improvement, and lists what it may consider: personal difficulties, health issues, financial pressure, employment load, bereavement, study skills, or other serious problems. Adelaide University's committee makes a recommendation based on your likely future progress, weighing your application, your academic record and your engagement with the intervention strategies offered.
So write the submission as an argument about the future with evidence from the past. A paragraph on the semester you had is necessary. A paragraph on the reduced load, the changed shift roster, the treatment that has started or the units you will drop is what the decision turns on.
What are the deadlines, and what happens if you miss one?
Short, published, and counted in working or business days.
- Adelaide University gives 10 working days from the date the Intention to Preclude Notice is sent to submit an Application to Remain Enrolled. Its Academic Progress Committee meets at least 10 working days after that deadline, gives no less than five working days' notice of a meeting, and sends the outcome by email no more than five working days after the meeting.
- Melbourne asks you to lodge a submission at least two working days before your Course Academic Progress Committee meeting if you are attending, or one day before the meetings begin if you are not, and normally emails the outcome within three business days of the meeting.
- UWA requires the statement of reasons to be submitted within 20 University working days after the formal release of the results that led to the status of Suspended or Excluded.
- QUT simply requires the show cause submission by the date specified in the notice, and the Faculty Academic Board will make a decision on exclusion where a student has not made one.
Missing the deadline does not pause anything. Melbourne states that its committee will make a decision about your enrolment even if you provide no written submission and do not attend. Adelaide University precludes a student who does not lodge an Application to Remain Enrolled by the required date. The email is the deadline.
How do you appeal, and who reviews the decision?
Appeals are about process and fairness, not about whether the marks were harsh. Melbourne lists four grounds: a procedural irregularity including not receiving a fair hearing, new information that was not reasonably available at the time, a decision that was manifestly wrong, or a penalty that was unreasonable. It also states that not reading or responding to University communications is not grounds for appeal. The appeal goes to the Academic Secretary within 20 business days of receiving the outcome, and if it fails you can request an external review from the Victorian Ombudsman.
QUT refers every decision to exclude to its Appeals Committee where the student made a show cause submission, and the student must be advised of the outcome within 5 working days of the meeting. If the committee does not uphold the exclusion you may re-enrol immediately on probationary enrolment for six months, with no adverse academic or financial consequences provided you enrol within five working days of being notified. UWA's rules let you appeal against a progress status assigned under Rule 35 if you believe it has not been fairly arrived at by applying the relevant rules to your final results, and allow a school or board to let you attend classes or sit examinations while the appeal runs.
Griffith and Sydney publish the shorter versions. Griffith's exclusion page tells you to speak with your Program Director first, then to lodge a review request within 10 working days from the date of the exclusion notice email, and to appeal through its Student review and appeals process only if the review outcome does not satisfy you.
Sydney's show cause page sends an appeal against an exclusion, or against conditions on your re-enrolment, to your faculty by the route in the decision email, and tells you to keep attending classes while the appeal is pending, because an exclusion does not cancel your enrolment until the right to appeal is spent.
Beyond the university there is one more door. The National Student Ombudsman can consider complaints about a provider's complaint and appeal procedures and about a failure to clearly explain its decisions, for providers registered with TEQSA. It does not consider complaints related to academic judgement, for example the grade you are awarded.
How long does an exclusion last, and can you come back?
Rarely forever, but the return is conditional.
UWA sets out the arithmetic in the student rules. Suspension is 12 months, and you cannot enrol in that course during it. Exclusion is indefinite unless you appeal successfully or, after at least 12 months, you apply and the relevant school or board permits you to re-enrol. Either way you come back with the status On Probation for 12 months, and must consult your student adviser and submit the enrolment they specify.
QUT will not consider an excluded student for admission to a like course unless at least 12 months have elapsed, and a student who returns after exclusion is on probationary enrolment for six months, with earlier failed units taken into account in later reviews. Adelaide University's preclusion blocks applications to the same or a cognate program at the same or a higher level for 12 months from the date of the notice, and a student readmitted within five years returns at Risk Notice 2.
Griffith's exclusion runs for two standard trimesters or nine calendar months, whichever is longer, from the date of the notification, with Trimester 3 not counting towards it, and Griffith allows an excluded student to request to graduate from an alternative award as an early exit, subject to meeting that award's requirements. Sydney's show cause page sets exclusion at two years, at least four consecutive semesters, after which you can apply to return to the same award course at the discretion of the Associate Dean of the faculty or school, and readmission is not automatic.
Melbourne asks for proof rather than time alone. To demonstrate academic rehabilitation after a terminated enrolment you must successfully complete between two subjects, for a course of 100 credit points, and four subjects, for a course of 200 points or more, in a related discipline at any tertiary institution, within one calendar year, with an average result of at least 70 per cent and no fails.
What should you do in the first week after the notice?
Treat the email as a document with a deadline in it, not as a verdict.
- Find the deadline in the notice and put it in your calendar with a reminder two days earlier.
- Complete whatever the first stage requires, whether that is Melbourne's Return to Good Standing Plan, Griffith's Student Success Plan or Adelaide University's academic support plan. It is usually the cheapest thing you will ever do for your enrolment.
- Collect evidence before you write: medical certificates, a letter from an employer, a counselling record, a death notice. QUT's own policy allows you to be assisted by a support person where relevant.
- Book the adviser or Student Assist appointment. At Sydney it becomes a requirement at academic caution anyway.
- Contact your student association's advocacy service. Melbourne names its student union's advocacy service on the page itself, including templates for a submission.
- Decide your load for next period before the meeting, so the plan you present is a real one.
- Write the submission around what has changed, then attach the evidence.
Rebuilding the marks afterwards is a separate problem, and a smaller one than it looks. Weekly self-testing during teaching weeks moves more marks than a long revision block, which is the argument in how assessment works at an Australian university.
Does this change anything if you are an international student?
Yes, and the timing becomes the whole issue. Melbourne states that it will notify the Department of Home Affairs if you do not appeal to the Academic Secretary within 20 business days of receiving your outcome, if your appeal fails and you do not provide evidence within 10 business days that you have lodged an appeal with the Victorian Ombudsman or the National Student Ombudsman, or if all appeal options are exhausted and the decision stands. It also says the University will not notify Home Affairs if you appeal within the required timeframes.
QUT reports all excluded international student visa holders to the designated Australian Government department for breach of the student condition relating to satisfactory academic performance. Adelaide University emails affected students about the implications for their enrolment and Confirmation of Enrolment. Griffith tells international students to book their international student adviser as soon as the status changes. Studying in Australia on a student visa covers the wider set of conditions.
One separate change is worth knowing. Sydney's page records that an amendment to the Higher Education Support Act 2003, effective 1 January 2024, removed the requirement to pass 50 per cent of the units you study to remain eligible for a Commonwealth supported place and HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP assistance, and Griffith publishes the same change. Your university's own progress rules still use the 50 per cent line; the Commonwealth funding consequence is the part that went.
Where Notibo fits
A bad review period often has the same shape behind it: the recordings piled up, the reading never turned into anything you could be tested on, and the first assessment came back before there was a system. Notibo records a lecture on your computer, or takes an audio file you upload, and returns a transcript, structured notes and flashcards with spaced repetition. It turns PDF, PPTX and DOCX files into notes and flashcards as well, so a backlog of slides and papers becomes question sets rather than a reading list. It transcribes 89 languages, and the transcript is in the language spoken. Notes can be exported as PDF or Word.
A reduced load after a probation decision is a good time to make the weekly step small enough to actually happen. The first 14 days of Pro are free, with 240 minutes of recording and no card. When the trial ends, the free plan gives 30 minutes of recording a month, and Pro is 9.99 euro a month or 88.99 euro a year, with the local amount shown at checkout. Files are stored in the EU on Supabase in Frankfurt, and transcription and the AI notes run on US processors under standard contractual clauses. Ask before you record anyone, and check your unit's rule on generated material before it goes anywhere near assessed work. Flashcards shows how the spacing works.