Gap analysis on financial knowledge and practice: Teachable opportunities

Abstract

The study aims at assessing the gap in knowledge, perception and practice of managing personal finance among undergraduate students in India. A combined measure of self-rating and actual financial knowledge and practice on credit cards, investments, loans and insurance are recorded to analyze the behavioral gap. A structured questionnaire was administered on 1500 undergraduate students, selected using a purposive sampling technique. Simultaneous study on 50 experts to record their opinion and experience in identifying teachable opportunities, gaps in the current system and the best methodology for imparting financial literacy program for non-finance students revealed the best practices. The best practices suggested are evaluated based on its capacity to target, interact, access, scalable and its effectiveness at university level. It is evident from the study that there is a larger lacuna in imparting the basic financial knowledge for practical management of personal finance to non-business students and the teachable opportunities are unidentified at university level.