Academic Integrity and Debt Literacy of Finance Students: A Cross-national Study

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to assess – based on a cross-national survey – academic integrity and debt literacy of finance students vis a vis their non-finance peers. Financial crises can be driven by both unethical actions of finance professionals and low financial literacy on either side of financial markets, as shown by the recent global crisis. Therefore, we checked whether these two issues are addressed at universities, where finance students are prepared to become future financial professionals. Additional goal is to learn factors related to academic integrity and debt literacy among university students. The study is based on self-reports of 1,022 students from 5 countries on their academic integrity and debt literacy (convenience sample, self- administered survey). We used categorical regression models, along with non-parametric statistical tests, to analyse the survey responses. We did not find support for the hypothesis that finance students were more dishonest than their non-finance peers. Yet, we established that the debt literacy of finance students is alarmingly low, though higher than the debt literacy of other students. This raises many concerns regarding the preparedness of todayǯs students to make well-informed financial decisions and to perform as finance professionals in the future. The results of this study indicate shortcomings in the education of the finance elite and, therefore, call for a remedy.