Demographic Factors and Financial Literacy among Undergraduates: Special Reference to State Universities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In recent times, financial literacy has become a blistering problem in both developing and developed countries as a significant element that permits people to insure a successful financial state. The empirical findings revealed that financial literacy among young students highly depend on demographic factors and found a number of variables to be associated with financial literacy, though the results are contradictory. Therefore, as one of dynamic segment of the society, the objective of this study is to identify whether there is any significant difference between demographic factors and financial literacy among Undergraduates in the State Universities of Sri Lanka. Hence, as proxy of demographic factors age, gender, education level, education major and year in university were employed whereas financial literacy as dependent variable. A sample of 120 undergraduates was randomly selected and surveyed, using a structured questionnaire from four State Universities. The data were analyzed through independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA in order to test the significant difference while to study the relationship correlation analysis is used. Further, multiple regression also has been used to find the model fit and variation of the dependent variable caused by independent variables. The results of the study revealed that there is a significant difference between all the independent variables with dependent variable by indicating that female, non- management stream undergraduates along with those who are not following professional causes had lower financial literacy than others. Consequently, the study recommends relevant authorities at higher education plus with industry bodies to take necessary actions on improving the financial literacy among undergraduates by considering all streams, gender, age and education level through relevant workshops, awareness and training programs promptly.