A Student Financial Education Action Plan

Financial stewardship refers to the responsibility of managing personal finances keeping in mind the welfare of another individual. Students in campuses have overtime lacked skills of financial management and good stewardship this has resulted into the suffering of both the student, the campus and their parents/guardians. Financial stress additionally is a biggest contributor to student stress and their reducing academic performance. A lot has been said in the news lately with regards to the requirement of student financial education and strategies of adopting a financial education program within colleges and universities. To assist schools form a solid plan of educating students regarding their finances, this paper will offer an action plan of creating a campus/college financial education course.  The recommendations are supported by the enormous body of evidence which has proved that financial education is crucial for learners in higher education.

Reasons why financial education is significant for college learners

Financial education is aimed at enhancing a learner’s financial knowledge, bringing out cash managing skills, growing confidence within financial resolution-making and offering a correct standpoint associated to the learner’s financial welfare. Jointly, these components illustrate a learner’s financial capability, a conduct which is evidently absent on most colleges and campuses. Campus students are enrolled in the midst of unstable economic periods, which results in extensive tuition increases, elevated learner loan borrowing along with rising correlation connecting cash managing and stress (Bloomberg, 2014). Considering that retention and completion goals form the main objectives of many campuses, universities ought to lay emphasis and resources towards generating or improving effectual financial education programs in order for growing financial capability for learners.  Recent polls have indicated that almost forty-eight percent of institutions normally offer financial education of some kind further than entry and exit counseling. Taking into account the little amount of resources allocated to student financial education, there is an urgent need for campuses to be sensitized on the significance of a structured and effectual program adoption to improving learners’ financial stewardship (Chicagotribune, 2014.

Below are recent actualities that illustrate the requirement for financial edification for campus learners;

• Contemporary youths evidently are deficient of financial management skills. Most students have the notion that they could only deal with the financial management subject after graduation, which is misleading.
• Campus learners require assistance. Recent surveys have shown about seventy-eight percent of learners have indicated that their schools are not committed towards student financial education. For instance, a study performed within the University of Arizona indicated that 94% of learners consider financial independence as critical.
• Stresses originating from financial mismanagement pose a negative effect on others have indicated that they have thought of dropping out as a result of financial stress. Additionally perseverance. Students have reported that finances stress them on regular basis, whilst, researches have shown that students fail to attend college classes since they are working to sustain themselves within school (Chicagotribune, 2014).   

Attendance cost along with cohort default charges are increasing simultaneously. More than twenty percent of full-time learners in public campuses attend institutions which have amplified their published prices within the recent times.  

Learners are expected to handle huge debts but possess little or training. For instance, a majority of learners leave campus with a big sum of education debt, almost $ 25,000 for bachelor’s degree learners. These huge debts together with absence of skills in understanding ways of managing them, campus learners are left at a big difficulty. The above facts show the dire requirement to edify campus students on cash management skills. Youths in the learning institutions require financial training to generate informed choices and keep away mistakes which could amplify problems within their college life (Forbes, 2014).  

Action plan for creating a college financial education program

A majority of universities all through the nation have in recent time recognized the requirement of student financial education and have dedicated resources aimed at creating effectual programs. Whilst financial edification is never similar in all the campuses since students’ needs are different in varying campuses, the following program possesses components that will deliver awareness, behavioral transformation and knowledge to college students (Forbes, 2014).  

1. Form a multidisciplinary success team

College learners’ financial success requires to be observed from a whole campus viewpoint rather than a one department obligation. A majority of college administrators may have seen the need for assisting learners study financial management expertise, whilst others regard this subject as being the last priority. The tables below assists determine the stakeholders and reasons why they require participating in enhancing learners’ financial capability.

Stakeholder	Reasons for participation
Campus Director	An all-rounded education comprises of a financial education that aids graduates become financially accountable adults. In addition a financial edification program fosters student academic success along with retention.
Admission Officers	Providing a college financial awareness program for learners is a commanding recruiting instrument which attracts both learners and guardians/parents.
Bursar’s Office	Learners who are able to manage finances are mostly likely to reimbursing their student loans
Financial aid administrators	Learners facing financial troubles usually visit the financial assistance office thus by participating less assistance will be required.

1. Choosing a delivery technique

Considering the limited resources accessible, it is imperative that the campus identifies the best delivery strategy. Additionally to ensure success in financial education several techniques can be used in delivery since they will complement each other.  Below are some of the methods that a campus could use to extend student financial education (Forbes, 2014).

Delivery technique	Highlights
Face-to-face meetings	Learners are particularly sensitive to personal financial issues, thus, this strategy is effective since it is highly customizable. Peer educators is the mainly cost-effective approach.
Group education seminars	This reaches more students and extends increased awareness and makes learners seek financial education all through their lives.
Online education	Learners are mainly comfortable with this platform. This approach offers easy reporting and is usually very accessible via college computing sites.

1. Promotion

Whilst research has indicated that learners require more assistance with issues relating to good stewardship of their personal finances, it is essential to communicate to learners the available alternatives through promotion.  There exist several methods that cost-effective and effectually foster student financial education (Chicagotribune, 2014).

• Social media: students spend above two hours daily on the social media sites, qualifying this approach as an efficient way of delivering marketing messages.
• Taking advantage of existing program such as First Year Experience and others so as to capture bigger student numbers.
• Communication between relevant departments in identifying learners who require assistance
• Word of mouth communication is a dominant promotional approach since the existing members will spread the word.    

1. Assessing financial education impacts

Insufficient or no assessments are done in evaluating the successes of the prevailing programs. It is important for every college/campus to collect information on relevant programs along with services to examine the effect on financial management capacity. The captured data will help offer a sturdy rationale regarding the best ways to use in delivering the message in addition to adjusting the programs if necessary. Satisfaction surveys can be carried out to determine the learners’ receptiveness (Investors, 2014).   

Recommendations

Campuses require forming multidisciplinary success teams which comprises of stakeholders which should endeavor to enhance the financial management and stewardship capacity of learners.

• Locate the financial subjects pertinent to learners. Every campus and learner populace possesses a dissimilar need, which changes as a learner progresses their course.
• Locate the best along with the mostly available strategy for the campus and choose a delivery technique that would work best within the particular campus.
• When the program starts there should be a promotion aimed at acquiring the student participation all through their college course life.
• An assessment of the financial program of education requires to be carried out regularly. This can be done through gathering data from services also programs to identify the impacts on student financial management and stewardship.

Colleges should adopt programs that will enable their students gain appropriate financial management skills. Effectual financial education enables learners become good stewards of their finances. A learner who has skills of financial management registers good academic performance since they mainly do not experience financial stress.   Additionally, the same students have high chances of completing their courses successfully without the thought of dropping out due to financial constraints. Whilst campuses have adopted a financial education program within their colleges, they require going further than just providing a program for their learners to assessing its impact. The financial education should be aimed at a better financial future for learners, schools and also communities.

References

Bloomberg. (2014, July 14). Why Financial Literacy Is So Important to Students: Video – Bloomberg [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/video/why-financial-literacy-is-so-important-to-students-_rzTUeXNR1abKCFuXX7_6g.html

Chicagotribune. (2014, July 24). Young Americans score average on personal finance knowledge – Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/sc-cons-0724-started-20140724-story.html

Forbes. (2014, July 16). The Financial Literacy Gap Costs College Graduates Thousands – Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2014/07/16/the-financial-literacy-gap-costs-college-graduates-thousands/

Forbes. (2014, August 21). 7 Simple Steps College Students Should Take To Build Financial Literacy And Responsibility – Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/08/21/7-simple-steps-college-students-should-take-to-build-financial-literacy-and-responsibility/

Investors. (2014, September 24). Higher One Announces 21 Recipients of its Annual Financial Literacy Counts Grant – Investors.com. Retrieved from http://news.investors.com/newsfeed-business-wire/092414-141609475-higher-one-announces-21-recipients-of-its-annual-financial-literacy-counts-grant.aspx

The New-York Times. (2014, September 9). The New York Times in the First Year» Blog Archive » Measuring Colleges’ Success in Enrolling the Less Affluent. Retrieved from http://nytimesinthefirstyear.com/measuring-colleges-success-in-enrolling-the-less-affluent/