Financial literacy of technical university students: self-assessment of the state and dynamics of its development
Authors:   Moscow Aviation Institute, Stepnova Olga V. , Starchikova Irina Yu. ,   Moscow Aviation Institute, Kurashova Svetlana A. ,   Moscow Aviation Institute
Published: May 2024

Introduction. In the context of the rapid development of digital financial technologies, an increase in banking services and fraudulent schemes, the problem of a low level of financial illiteracy among the population is becoming acute. Proper management of your own finances is useful knowledge that will help you achieve financial well-being and stability. Poor understanding of trends in the global economy and country development plans; response to advertising without critical thinking, recalculation of numbers, inability to see hidden commissions and other negative factors leading to loss of capital, all this is the reason for the formation of financial competence of the younger generation. The purpose of the study is to analyze technical university students’ self-assessment of their financial literacy. Materials and methods. The research material was based on survey data from 230 students of the Stupino branch of the Moscow Aviation Institute (Russian Federation). Statistical differences were assessed using the χ²-Pearson goodness-of-fit test. Results. It was revealed that digitalization and lockdown contributed to increasing the motivation of technical university students to master financial literacy: 99.1% of students use financial services, 76.1% of respondents are aimed at increasing their level of financial literacy and are ready to gain knowledge as part of the course program (54.3%) or through the introduction of a separate subject (36.1%) and only 9.6% of respondents believe that studying personal finance management issues at the university is maximized. The analysis showed that in a comparative analysis of respondents’ answers in 2020 and 2023, statistical differences are significant (χ²obs > χ²cr) for almost all questions of the second module. Thus, the observed value of the Pearson criterion χ²obs = 7.33 exceeds the critical value χ²cr = 3.84 at the significance level α = 0.05 by almost two times for questions about the key rate of the Central Bank. Students are interested in the discount rate, understanding its role in solving financial issues. For the group of issues related to investing in financial markets, statistical differences are also significant (χ²obs = 27.8 при χ²cr = 11.07, α = 0.05). Respondents in 2023 are showing greater interest in trends in the stock, foreign exchange and other markets. There are also significant statistical differences in the group of questions about acquiring knowledge in the field of financial literacy (χ²obs = 22.79, χ²cr = 5.99 at a significance level of α = 0.05). Engineering students surveyed in 2023 are ready to study personal finance management in college. Conclusion. The study showed the feasibility of introducing elective classes on financial literacy at a university, where innovative approaches using quest technologies, master classes, and intellectual and entertaining quizzes can help engineering students overcome gaps in managing their own finances.