The current budget to support college students is not enough to meet demand, new research has claimed.

The National Union of Students (NUS) in Scotland requested information from 40 colleges across the country on the allocation of their bursary budgets.

Bursaries are discretionary funds provided to the poorest students to help them finance their studies.

The organisation received responses from 28 institutions, with half of those stating they had overspent their budget in 2011/12, and a further eight stating they had spent all of their budget for student support.

NUS Scotland said colleges had been forced to dip into their own funds to provide the financial support students need.

The analysis, conducted with Scotland's Colleges, the organisation which represents the sector, comes after the Scottish Government proposed a reduction in the current £95.6 million budget to £84.2 million from August.

The current £95.6 million budget for 2011/12 represents a £14 million increase on the previous year's funding but NUS Scotland said ministers were reneging on a promise to protect the student support budget by reversing the rise.

NUS Scotland president Robin Parker said: "This analysis is incredibly worrying as it shows that even the current £95.6 million budget was not enough to meet demand from the poorest students hoping to go to college just now.

"The SNP's manifesto was clearly right in May to promise to protect this budget throughout the parliament, but they are now absolutely wrong to be proposing an £11 million cut. This would be a cut to the poorest people in some of the poorest communities in Scotland."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are providing the best deal we can for colleges at a time when we are having to reduce many other budgets as a result of the swingeing cut the UK Government is making to Scotland's block grant."