Research with Partners

Queensland University of Technology (2015-2016)

Research Focus

The purpose of this project is to examine the financial literacy of first-year university students by assessing their perception of the financial life skills programs they might have received in school and a range of contextual factors that may influence their financial capability

Key questions

  1. High school has taught me financial life skills that will prepare me for adult life.
  2. How often do you think financial life skills should be taught at high school?
  3. How often do you think about your financial future?
  4. Should people learn about financial products (e.g. mortgages) before they use them?
  5. Should people learn about financial services (e.g. financial planning) before they use them?
  6. How important is financial education to you, your parents and your school?

NOTE: This report shares findings and discussion points from six questions within the survey. These finding will be of particular interest to school educators. Further reports, based on the survey will be published in due course. Samples of anecdotal comments provided by participants are also included. These comments help to provide some richness and context to the data represented in tables and graphs.

Report


Media Release 1: Students leaving high school without the financial education life skills they need

19/11/15 – Over 65% of first year tertiary students aged under 20, believe that their high school did not prepare them with the financial life skills they will need as adults. At a time when tens of thousands of final year secondary students are about to leave high school this is an alarming concern.

Despite the rhetoric from government and school systems, our schools seem to have given scant recognition to the importance of financial education. Only 12% of students think that their financial education at school was adequate. Most students’ comments were indicative of the following:

The school did the bare minimum teaching on the subject. There needs to be a massive overhaul of the financial teaching …

Almost all of my financial skills knowledge came from what my parents taught me, I gained next to nothing in my high school about it.

Media release 1

Students’ low financial literacy makes understanding fees, loans, debt difficult

Published: The Conversation, August 4, 2015 6.05am AEST •Updated: December 5, 2016 3.09pm AEDT

Financial literacy in Australian is low, particularly so in those under 25 years of age. What might be surprising is that it is low even among university students.

Recently I was part of a research team that undertook surveys of students from across Australia aged 17-20. Students were asked to rate their understanding of different areas of financial importance: budgeting, saving, managing debt, investing, retirement planning, tax, insurance and superannuation.

They were then asked to answer some basic questions related to each of those areas, with some interesting results that are yet to be published.

Students overall rated their understanding of budgeting and saving reasonably high, with 55.4% considering themselves to have a high understanding of budgeting and 66.7% a high understanding of saving.

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Australian Boarding Schools' Association

Below are snapshots of results from a survey given to the parents of boarders from schools across Australia.

Clearly, there is a need for financial education in boarding schools!