Open Knowledge and Financial Literacy
Open knowledge is defined as “content, information or data that People are free to use, re-use and redistribute — without any legal, technological or social restriction”. This has been a tricky one for me to wrap my head around in my area of work (Student Finance and funding) but then during a conversation with a colleague the idea of open knowledge in the area of financial literacy and its ease of access suddenly dawned on me.
Financial literacy may be defined as “the possession of the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources” and is becoming more and more important in today’s society. Younger generations are “growing up in an increasingly complex world where they will eventually need to take charge of their own financial future”. Learning to budget, save and know when it is appropriate to take calculated risks are all acquired skills which young adults, especially those attending university, should be developing early on and improving with age.
This being said financial literacy, or the seeming lack of it amongst students is a key concern of mine in my area. Working in the world of Student Finance and managing the administration of the University financial support packages my team and I spend a lot of time advising students on their funding and Student Finance allocations. A considerable amount of this time is spent decoding the world of Student Finance and basic financial terms to bring it to a level of understanding students can comprehend. I think the issues of financial understanding are well summed up in this Guardian article. The student, Simon Crowther, points out that there is a lack of financial understanding amongst university students leading him and his peers to take on students loans at an age when they had little to no experience of financial products.
Of course we come across a wide range of understanding from students who are very knowledgeable to those who have to pass responsibility to their parents to deal with it on their behalf. It is this latter end of the scale which concerns us the most and draws into question the financial education these students have received thus far.
Financial literacy education was introduced into the National Curriculum for Citizenship in 2014 as one of the key learning aims, but this was a bit too late for those already at the stage of application to University, or already enrolled. In fact it is unlikely we will see a student enrol at age 18 at university who has benefitted from the full programme of financial literacy until 2021!
For those that are able to benefit there is the issue of their school teachers not feeling confident in teaching financial skills. These teachers also feel financial education should start in primary school and become a greater Government priority. This lack of faith in the teaching of financial skills could see more students arriving at university apprehensive in their own skills to manage the student loan they have just been given. This is where I see open knowledge stepping into fill the gap and to provide opportunity for students to access financial education from sources which are able to provide the correct level of education for those who want it.
Given how late to the game we are in developing financial literacy in the UK curriculum (the OECD recommended its inclusion across a number of countries in 2005) it seems only natural that some companies and banks started developing their own financial literacy learning platforms. The development of these could go a long way to allowing students to openly access financial literacy training but I do think more could be done to promote their use.
MyBnk looks great, but is a paid for face-to-face training programme therefore not open access. Barclays and NatWest, two providers of student accounts, are offering what look like great resources but again, each requires you to sign up to access the content and can limit what content you have access to depending on your status be it student, teacher or parent.
The effort that has gone into making this financial education available should not be knocked, it is urgently needed to support younger generations and is starting to address the issue of open financial knowledge however the ease of access and the limiting of resources depending on your status still does not strike me as truly open knowledge for all to access.
Blackbullion is currently used for financial skills training at the University of Manchester. Kudos goes to the University for implementing such a system. Certain modules within Blackbullion have become included in the Hardship Fund application process as mandatory training to ensure applicants to our Fund have accessed some training in budgeting as a minimum but it is also open to the wider student community, and staff. However my research for The Changing Landscape of Higher Education has shown that students have found the age level of information too young and patronising causing disengagement from the learning process. Alongside this access can only be obtained if a) you are already a student at a University in the UK or Australia or b) you are about to start University and have been provided with an access code. Again, a platform that is out there to support financial literacy is behind something of a barrier and pitching at the wrong level.
It is clear there is some work to be done on making financial education accessible and engaging. I fully appreciate it isn’t the most exciting topic, but there is also a lot more that can be done right now to make information that is already in existence freely accessible to all. Personally, I would like to see all the resources hiding behind a registration form to be freely accessible. I feel that registration forms can actually drive students away rather than encourage them to join something.
There is also a much larger issue that also needs tackling, the taboo of talking about money and personal finances. This one is going to take much longer but perhaps by being truly open with financial education we can break both the taboo and increase financial literacy skills…the ultimate goal!
