The Scottish Government must provide ringfenced funding for student mental health services, the head of a leading Scottish student union has said.

Sai Shraddha Suresh Viswanathan, president of the National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland, told The Herald that working class and international students are bearing the brunt of the mental health crisis at Scotland’s universities.

Viswanthan, formerly the Vice President for Welfare at Aberdeen University Students’ Association (AUSA), explained that many students have experienced a “slow but exponential” decline in their mental health over the last several years. 

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She said: "After the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, the decline of mental health has spiked in different groups. This has disproportionately affected working class students and students from widening access backgrounds, especially migrant students coming in from different backgrounds who have faced added layers of immigration hostility.

“We also have care-experienced students, and other vulnerable student groups, who have been systematically oppressed because of the classist divide in society that we have. Because we don’t have any consistent funding, thanks to the government, there hasn’t been any improvement to conditions for students.” 

A call has been made to protect funding for student mental health servicesA call has been made to protect funding for student mental health services (Image: PA) In the spring of 2023, Viswanathan launched a campaign calling on the Scottish Government to reverse funding cuts to student mental health assistance.

“There was a big fear of the mental health budget being cut for different institutions in Scotland, and NUS Scotland started up a campaign called ‘Save our Counsellors,” the union’s now-boss said. 

After a months-long campaign involving students from across Scotland, the government provided a transitional fund of £3.21 million in July 2023. This was established to assist institutions in allocating funding towards their own mental wellbeing schemes. 

Viswanathan noted: “There was a temporary fund set up but that was never a permanent solution for the current crisis happening, and we knew that. That was definitely an appreciated move from the government. 

“However, the government still has to do a lot of work in finding a permanent fix to declining student mental health.”

The solution? Viswanathan said permanent funding, rather than year by year contributions, which is the current funding model, would go a long way to ensuring students have the support they need. 

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If you are struggling with your mental health, resources are available. Visit NHS Inform for more information.

She added: “For more sustainable change, we need more ringfenced finances. That’s a non-negotiable. These support services are non-negotiables for student life. They need to be treated in that way.

“Mental health first aid training is a very temporary fix, but we cannot rely on that model to be sustainable because it is going to exhaust a lot of people in different kinds of services,” she added.

“If the government is looking at cuts in different areas, we cannot be taking hits in student support services that students in different institutions really rely on.

“As much as we welcome working with them and building relationships with them, there needs to be a shift in the thought process behind this funding model for essential services.”

Viswanathan also said that a lack of funding could lead to job losses for those working in professional mental health services, such as counsellors and therapists. 

She noted: “A lot of professional services are already taking a lot of voluntary severance. If there is no consistent funding found for mental health services, that will lead to a decline in employment, even for counsellors or for essential services for students.” 

The calls come at a time of financial instability at Holyrood, as the Swinney government will attempt to pass its first budget in December. Amidst "enormous and growing pressure on public finances”, Finance Minister Shona Robison announced £500 million in cuts last month.

Responding to a request for comment, a spokesperson defended the Scottish Government’s work on mental health, and pointed to a recently released Mental Health Action Plan. 

The spokesperson said: “We have invested over £19 million since 2019/20 to support student mental health and wellbeing in colleges and universities, including support for the NUS Think Positive initiative, with an award of £130,000 in the current financial year. 

“The publication of the Student Mental Health Action Plan last month seeks to ensure that students can better access the wide range of preventative services and wider public services in which the Scottish Government has already significantly invested.”