Studying financial literacy of university students of non-economic specialties

Abstract

Introduction. The urgent and complex issue of ensuring personal financial security is currently being addressed in a variety of ways, including in the form of various financial literacy training activities introduced in the educational process of higher education institutions. The aim of the research is the analysis of financial literacy of non-economic profile university students and their relevant competences in the field of personal security and online shopping. Materials and methods. The research material is represented by the questioning data obtained from 427 full-time 3rd and 4th year students of non-economic profile, as well as the data of continuous observation of academic performance of 693 non-economic profile students of Immanuel Kant Federal Baltic University (Russian Federation) trained in 2019-2022 in financial security within the framework of disciplines in basic economics and entrepreneurship which included a distance course “Money and its management”. Results. The analysis of data obtained in the course of the survey is evident of the demand for knowledge and competencies in financial literacy in the students of non-economic specialties (more than 60% of the respondents), demonstrates a sustainable aspiration to improve its level (90% of the respondents). The research confirmed the assumption that the students without special training have no due system of knowledge and competencies in the field of personal financial security and safe online shopping. In particular, 68% of the respondents did not have even a general idea about the system to ensure financial security in Russia; most of the respondents did not know about online shopping site checking services (96%) and 25% of the respondents did not think about online shopping security at all. The analysis of students’ opinions enabled the authors to update the materials on the subject of the research by adding relevant content. Conclusion. The system of personal financial security is an important component of the country’s economic security to be maintained by the younger generation. It is advisable to make separate training course on the basis of the financial literacy section included in the disciplines covering the fundamentals of economics and entrepreneurship. Keywords: students of non-economic profile, financial literacy, personal financial security, “safe online shopping” competence