Financial literacy and personal financial management in public administration students: a case study in Villa Serrano

Abstract

Financial education as an interdisciplinary field has been evolving in recent years in order to respond to contemporary organizational needs. This research aims to analyze how financial education influences the financial decision-making of university students, highlighting the urgency of curricular interventions adapted to local socio-economic realities. To this end, a metadata-based review of documents published over a period of 20 years (2005–2024) is generated, covering a total of 670 documents from the scientific database Scopus, “The metadata analysis allowed us to identify thematic trends in previous publications, serving as a basis for the design of the instruments applied in the fieldwork”. In addition, given that the article presents a case study, structured surveys and semi-structured interviews were applied to assess financial knowledge, attitudes and practices of students of the Management and Public Administration degree at the San Francisco Xavier University of Chuquisaca, Villa Serrano campus, in financial education and personal economic management. The results reveal that 75% of the students have low credit knowledge and 80% face difficulties in saving, showing limited management skills and inadequate financial habits, and 83% of those surveyed expressed the need to incorporate financial education content into the university curriculum. At the same time, a specific programmer proposal was positively evaluated by experts in the field. These results highlight a critical training gap that could negatively influence students' economic decision-making skills in their future professional life. In this sense, it is concluded that the systematic integration of financial literacy programs in higher education is essential to foster economic autonomy, effective financial planning and the long-term well-being of future professionals.