Personal Financial Literacy among University Students studying Engineering

Sirli Mändmaa

doi:10.31686/ijier.vol8.iss8.2575

Authors

Sirli Mändmaa

Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol8.iss8.2575

Keywords:

Personal financial literacy, financial education, higher education students, engineering studies, gender differences

Abstract

Nowadays financial literacy is essential as in a society much of the financial responsibility has shifted from governments to the individual. The findings of earlier studies show that university students are not knowledgeable about personal finance and their financial skills needs improvement. This study analyzed the survey results of 536 university students to assess the financial literacy, the impact of educational and demo-graphical characteristics to the participants' financial literacy, and the students' financial opinions and choices. Results of regression analyze showed that statistically significant impact to the financial literacy had factors: academic discipline, level of education, gender, nationality, age and the choices to have a current account, a debit card, and investment services. Students studied in the Faculty of Civil Engineering compared to others, had higher knowledge in finance, especially female students.

These results of study give the direction for future research and enable to enhance financial education.

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Mändmaa, S and Zhiguleva, K 2013 ‘Financial literacy – the level of knowledge among students in Estonia’, poster presented to the conference Higher education - higher level learning? Tallinn, Estonia; January 23rd -25th