MAPFE programme students consolidate personal finance knowledge through Specific Student Empowerment Work Scheme 2021/22

A basic understanding of personal financial management is important for students to have in this day and age. To this end, the Specific Student Empowerment Work Scheme (Specific SEWS) 2021/22, entitled “Enhancing students’ financial literacy in EdUHK through on-campus workshops”, was organised to enhance students’ learning of related knowledge through active ownership of project-based, on-campus work and experiential learning opportunities.

Sponsored by the Student Affairs Office, the scheme was supervised by Dr Tan Weiqiang, programme leader of the Master of Arts in Personal Finance Education (MAPFE) programme and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences. Under the tutelage of Dr Tan, students of the MAPFE programme were divided into groups to take charge of organising four workshops and seminars throughout the 2021/22 academic year for the university community.

The first seminar entitled “How should university students manage their personal finance in the big-data era?” was organised in December 2021. The seminar taught students how to manage money in a discerning and discreet manner, covering how to wisely save, consume and invest. It also taught students how to prevent falling prey to online scams.

The second, third and fourth talks were all organised in February 2022. The second talk was about the taxation system in Hong Kong and tax deduction strategies. The third seminar discussed the importance of having an early saving plan for retirement, introducing a number of current means to achieve personal saving goals. By outlining basic knowledge about Bitcoin and blockchain technology, the fourth talk drew back the curtain on some of the mysteries in the world of financial technology.

On average, around 40 students from different programmes from various departments participated in-person or online in each workshop. The workshops increased their awareness and understanding of financial literacy.

Aside from organising talks on personal finance, students of the MAPFE programme also completed conducting a survey on EdUHK students’ opinion on their use of credit cards. Conducted between March and May 2022, the survey investigated students’ monthly credit card expenditures, as well as their repayment habits and whether they had overdue credit card bills, the sources through which they repaid any debt, and whether they extracted cash advances from credit cards.

Dr Tan said one of the special features of the MAPFE programme is providing students with opportunities to gain practical and first-hand experience in applying financial knowledge to everyday situations. He added, “The Specific Student Empowerment Work Scheme, which ran from November 2021 to June 2022, offered students of the programme a chance to learn how to present the knowledge gained from textbooks and use it to analyse personal finance issues through organising seminars and conducting a survey. These learning experiences outside the classroom are valuable and help students to strengthen skills relevant to their future work in the areas of education, business, and society.”