Kiel University is investing 50,000 euros in psychological counseling for students

Kiel University is investing 50,000 euros in psychological counseling for students

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Kiel University (CAU) has decided to support the psychological counseling of the Schleswig-Holstein Student Union (SH) in 2025 with a generous sum of 50,000 euros. This decision was made on April 22, 2025 by Prof. Dr. Frank Kempken, dean of the faculty, and Susann Schrader, managing director of the SH student union, officially signed.

The initiative is based on an alarming presentation that the SH student union gave to the state parliament's education committee in mid-March. This presentation pointed out the constantly increasing psychological stress on students. In 2024, around 1,500 people seeking advice sought psychological advice, which represents a doubling of inquiries compared to previous years. This highlights the urgent need for action.

Need for action due to long waiting times

In Kiel, students sometimes have to wait up to nine weeks for an appointment for psychological counseling. This situation increases the pressure on advising services and makes faculty support even more necessary. Prof. Dr. Frank Kempken emphasized the faculty's responsibility to support advisory services in order to shorten waiting times and promote students' academic success.

“We view these initiatives as necessary to improve study conditions,” says Prof. Kempken. Such measures are crucial, especially since Susann Schrader describes the faculty's initiative as an important expression of solidarity. She sees the financial injection not only as support for the student union team, but also as a direct benefit for the students.

Long-term perspectives and financing

In the long term, the SH Student Union aims to secure stable financing for its psychological counseling services from the state of Schleswig-Holstein. In order to counter rising personnel costs, an annual increase in funding of up to five percent is considered necessary. The Student Union is also of the opinion that the universities in the state should also contribute to ensuring that advisory services are available. This could represent an important basis for a sustainable improvement in psychological support for students.

Psychological counseling itself offers individual conversations for open discussion of current problems. The focus is on confidentiality and individual analysis of the situation. The counseling is designed to provide help through a limited number of individual discussions, which aim to show possible courses of action and possibly refer you to outpatient psychotherapy. No longer-term psychotherapies are offered in this setting, which underlines the need to expand capacity in psychological care.

Given the current challenges in the psychological health of students, such initiatives are more than welcome. The measures taken by the CAU and the SH student union demonstrate the ongoing trend towards viewing mental health as a central part of student life. For further information on psychological counseling services, please contact: Technical University of Berlin be visited.