A STUDENT is calling for a new project aiming to end mental health stigma in higher education to be rolled out across the country.

Heather McCartney, from Lanark, said she was forced to drop out of a course at Glasgow University because she was "overwhelmed" with anxiety.

But the 29-year-old believes she could have graduated if there was more support for students with mental health problems.

Ms McCartney spoke out as a new project from the National Union of Students (NUS) and funded by See Me was launched.

It is hoped Activism on and off Campus will improve the lives of students at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS).

The drive will recruit ambassadors from student associations at three pilot institutions, the UWS, as well as Forth Valley and Edinburgh College.

It aims to create a better educational environment for all who can be affected by discrimination, whether students or staff.

Ms McCartney started studying French and Classical Civilisations in 2003 when she was 17.

She had begun self harming when she was at school while doing higher exams.

She said: "It became so bad that every time I went to a lecture it felt as if I was in exam hell.

"The anxiety became overwhelming. I just thought I wasn't able to cope with anything."

Ms McCartney said she felt people only saw the illness and not her. She dropped in and out of university and eventually left in 2009.

She was eventually diagnosed with anxiety-related depression.

She said: "I felt that my advisor was brilliant and very supportive. But I felt others thought I was the girl who missed classes and didn't hand in essays.

"People thought I just wasn't cut out for university, the student life obviously wasn't for me.

"People only saw me as the illness, they didn't see me for the person I was and they judged what I did based on that."

Ms McCartney, who is now a part-time charity worker and studying counselling at New College Lanarkshire, said she would like to see the new anti-stigma project at universities and colleges across Scotland.

She said: "I would have really benefitted from something like that.

"I think a lot of students would because university is a transitional period and many people have moved away from home for the first time."

The new student ambassadors will work with the pilot institutions until next autumn, to find out what the issues related to stigma and discrimination are on campus.

They will then work with their peers, the students associations and NUS Scotland to tackle issues, which could include policies, decisions around exams, staff and student behaviour and timetabling.

Vonnie Sandlan, from NUS Scotland, said: "Students with mental health problems are entitled to education free of stigma and discrimination.

"We want this to improve people's experience of student life."

The project has been funded by See Me, Scotland's programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination.

See Me is building a movement of people and organisations all over the country whose collective action will help to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with poor mental health.

Judith Robertson, programme director, said: "Educational institutions are the ideal place to teach people why it is wrong to discriminate against someone just because they are unwell."