BACKGROUND OF STUDY

There is a long history of the study of financial crisis among students. Many researchers
especially from the west such as (Armstrong Opoku 2015 and Yakubu Wudu Sare, 2014) have
shown great interest in this topic. These studies have generated deep insight into financial
illiteracy among university students. However, they mainly focused on the students of foreign
countries. Opoku did a study on this crisis and the focus of this study is to conduct an empirical
overview of financial literacy among senior high school students. This study however focuses on
some selected senior high school in Kumasi metropolis since the area is full of people with
diverse 6 backgrounds the result shows the true reflection of personal finance literacy of senior
high school students in Ghana. This study is also centered on some selected Senior High Schools
in the Kumasi metropolis which is a handful to give the true reflection of financial literacy level
of senior high students in Ghana. In addition, only first and second year students are used for this
survey because the third-year students had completed school before the questionnaire was
administered. The questionnaire used in this study is inherently limited in scope. However, the
needed information required for the survey was collected irrespective of the above-mentioned
limitation.
Besides that, (Sare, 2014) did a study which is descriptive in nature and employed the
cross-sectional research design. This type of research design examines a single point in time or
takes a onetime snapshot approach of an issue being studied and is appropriate a for large sample
size especially in this study. To find out how effective students apply personal financial
knowledge in their daily activities, the study engaged the students in a focused group discussion.
Little is known about the condition of those students studying at Malaysian local universities
because there were not many research done here on this topic. We felt that this crisis happens a
lot among Malaysian students and that is why we are conducting this study. This study will be
done to identify the percentage of students that depend on their family, ‘Perbadanan Tabung
Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional’ (PTPTN) loan or scholarships to pursue their studies and manage
their expenses.

Spending behavior has never been stable, especially among university students. Free and
far away from the comforts of their home, many students are experiencing being independent for
the first time. One of the challenges they face is budgeting on their expenses. Living in a
university is a change from childhood into adulthood that makes student life more challenging
and tougher because they need to make a decision for themselves. Moreover, in the 90’s all
books, stationeries, clothes, and other similar items for studying were bought by the students for
cheap prices. In the present time, student’s needs have increased for sure, when laptops and other
gadgets are needed for assignments and for some, vehicles are one of the basic necessities that a
student should own.
Other than that, there are many groups of students that spent their money differently
especially among genders. According to researchers, some of them find out that male are better
in financial knowledge compared to female. This financial knowledge makes male to spend more
compared to female. It looks on how students manage their education money that they get
whether from scholarship, loan or from parents. Females tended to spend more money on
clothes, while men spent more money on entertainment and eating out (Wang and Xiao, 2009).
According to Norvilitis et al. (2006), women are more likely to report having a budget a men, but
women more frequently accumulate higher amount credit card debt and total debt (Micomonaco,
2003).
For that matter, Leach, Hayhoe & Turner (1999) stated that, early exposure to financial
management is important for the younger generation because they have various obligations such
as paying back the loans they used for their university education even before they graduated. All
students, not just students receiving financial aid like business students, need to establish good
spending habits. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the financial literacy level among
university students in managing their cash. By assessing the financial literacy level of students,
we can understand better about the spending habits of the students. The detail about the design of
study is described further in this research.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In general, most students experience their first financial independence without their
parent’s supervision during their university life. Consequently, students are likely to face
financial issues due to several factors during the same period. Firstly, studies have shown that
this group has high purchasing power with availability of educational loan such as PTPTN.
However, the loan provided seems to be not enough to finance all the expenses. Next, poor
financial management skills among students are another factor that leads to financial problem.
There are certain groups of students who tend to spend lavishly in the beginning of the semester
and end up facing financial issues throughout the other part of the semester. Apart from that,
poor family background can be considered another factor that drives a student to face financial
incapability. This is quite common among students especially for those who are not taking any
educational loans and living off campus. Their families most likely are not able to support them
financially. Hence, this results financial stress among students. In addition, economic fluctuation
which may lead to rising good prices, are making it tougher for students to survive.
As a result, most students these days are working part time to earn extra pocket money as
student loan just covers their fees and rent for the year, so having a job is essential. Even though,
working part time may help to students to become highly responsible and socially developed, but
it may also distract them from academic success. In fact, they will have some difficulties to be
attentive in class especially when they are tired working all night long. Furthermore, due the
financial pressure students might optimize the educational loans offered without realizing the
fact that these loans contribute to increasing student debt. All in all, financial stress leads to
adverse health effects such as high blood pressure, heart disease and so on.
In comparison by gender, there is no significant difference between male and females in
terms of spending behavior. In fact, Ibrahim et al. (2009) found out that there is no difference
between the level of financial knowledge between males and females students. It clearly shows
that the gender of students did not give any difference to their spending habits. Both male and
female students are lack of financial management skills. However, some studies show that most
students do not keep a written budget (Ibrahim et al. 2009). Meanwhile, female students would
keep a budget rather than male students as well as to use recommended financial practices such
as shopping with a list, planning spending, and saving regularly. (Ibrahim et al. 2009)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

We are also aiming to achieve a few things through this study which is as below: -

i. To identify monthly expenditure of UTHM students.

ii. To identify the ways UTHM students overcome financial crisis.
iii. To compare the financial crisis between gender among UTHM students.
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

Financial crisis has become a major problem among students nowadays. This study has to
identify monthly expenditure of UTHM students. The amount of PTPTN loan is not sufficient
for student’s semester expenditure. Apart from those students has more awareness of their
actions such as spending habits so that they will be able to control their fund in daily life.
Moreover, financial problem can prevent the university students from engaging in extensive debt
especially those students who has credit card debts.
Next, this study will enable those UTHM student’s parents to understand the ways
students overcome financial crisis. From this finding, parents have a deeper understanding of
their children who encounter the issue of financial independence in their life. Moreover when
those students are supported by their parents so that the amount of loan receives might be
sufficient for their semester expenditure.
Furthermore, this study will provide a comparison of financial crisis between genders
among UTHM students to the researchers especially to those who are doing research on student’s
financial factors that will affect student daily life especially at UTHM. This study is hoped to
give some insights on the financial problem faced by students. The researchers will understand
financial problem could affect student’s life quality.
Finally, with all these understanding and initiatives to improve financial crisis, the
government is hoped to bring about better decisions to improve the universities students
financial. From that these problems can overcome to help and take steps to improve student’s
situation.
LIMITATION OF STUDY

The focus of this study on financial crisis among UTHM students can be limited for a
number of reasons. First of all, the main factor of this limitation is time because only seven
weeks time is given to students to conduct this study. Then, the second main factor of limitation
is limited survey conduct and only certain faculty is choose for this study because of the limited
time and it is a survey among UTHM students especially among the Faculty of Mechanical and
Manufacturing Engineering (FKMP) and Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
(FKEE) department students. Mainly the engineering department is selected because of the
comparison is made on how the engineering students spend their PTPTN money. Other than that,
the findings might be different if the scope is increased to include more faculties since different
faculties might pose different characteristics. On other hand, this survey is limited for
comparison about expenditure between the gender. The main reason for this comparison is the
needs and expectations of male and female students are different. So this survey is to identify
how they spend their loan money. Besides that, this study will measure the perception of
respondents for each item using questioner only.
METHODOLOGY

(PRIMARY METHOD)
The target population for our study is defined as undergraduate university students
studying in UNIVERSITY TUN HUSSEIN ONN MALAYSIA. We are conducting the study for
the students financial crisis. The population of this study is the students of UTHM. There are two
faculties involve in this survey which is FKMP and FKEE. We chose this university and its
students as our representative of Malaysian University students because of its ease of
accessibility and proximity to us and it is a good indicator and benchmark as our target group is
local university students. From this population, we plan to get 150 UTHM students in first
semester from the second year. There are 75 boys and 75 girls equally. This will be done by grab
sampling method where we handpick students from the faculty through our personal networking
and acquaintances. The reason we want such a diverse sample is because it will better represent
the scenes of all local universities in general. We will understand the challenges faced by the
students and find out if there are links between their financial crisis and the causes of it and also
to investigate of the PTPTN loan is one of the reasons.
In the questionnaires, there will be few options of answers. The participants are in large
group of people, thus easier for them to answer the questionnaires if there is option to choose.
Besides that, using this method the results will be accurate and analysis can be made easily. If
used interview method, the response rate will be in low numbers due to some factors such as
participants are uncomfortable with interviews, participants are shy, lack of soft skills among the
participants.
The questionnaire must be easy to read and understand by the participants. The questions
should be straight forwards and the targeted population participants able to answer it clearly. The
distribution of the questionnaires is by using the current line of technologies, such as Google
docs, social networks, and emails. Besides that, for the better understanding about the
questionnaires for the participants’ distribution by hand is the best method to choose.
Research Instruments
- E-mail
- Social media such as FACEBOOK, WHATSAPP, TELEGRAM.
- By hand