Abstract
Background Student psychological well-being is increasingly threatened by academic competition, information overload, and socio-economic pressures, yet university counselling services in Kazakhstan remain underutilized due to structural and cultural barriers. Methods A convergent mixed-methods design was employed: a quantitative survey of 328 first-year students at Astana IT University (response rate 72.9%) and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 103 participants. Transcripts were analyzed using codebook thematic analysis with NVivo 14; inter-coder consistency reached κ = 0.82. Results Among non-users of counselling services, 70.1% stated a preference for ChatGPT as an alternative to professional psychological counselling. Key barriers included difficulty scheduling appointments (84.8%), confidentiality concerns (73.0%), and low trust in specialist competence (62.3%). A critical divergence was identified: Kazakh-speaking students rated resilience higher quantitatively yet reported embarrassment discussing psychological problems in interviews-interpreted as culturally mediated underreporting of distress. Discussion The findings reveal a systemic awareness-utilization gap and document a preference-driven displacement pattern toward AI tools in a context of limited institutional access. Five evidence-informed policy recommendations are proposed, including development of a national professional standard for university psychologists and integration of culturally adapted digital mental health platforms.