Financial Education in Turkey and Expectations of Practice - WebSitem

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics ISSN 1450-2887 Issue 64 (2011) © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011 http://www.eurojournals.com/finance.htm

Financial Education in Turkey and Expectations of Practice Murat Doğanay Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Political Sciences Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +90-312-5951419; Fax: +90-312-5951419 Orhan Ünal Assistant Prof. Department of Accounting Education, Faculty of Commerce and Tourism Education Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +90-312-4851460/135; Fax: +90-312-4851460 Abstract Developments on informatics and technology have affected every component within the financial system. Along with these developments, needs on financial knowledge and financial education have also ascended. Universities are the basic amenable in order to meet these needs. In this study, financial education at undergraduate level has been evaluated with the perspectives of experts and managers of regulatory and supervisory public organizations in Turkey. By reason of this study, it is stated that finance courses at undergraduate level do not meet the institutions’ needs literally, are not sufficient compared to all courses for undergraduate programs and do not involve up to date applications. As a result, in finance education it is necessary to build cooperation between institutions and universities, to use case studies and tasks for research activities. Keywords: Financial knowledge, financial education, efficiency at financial education, regulatory and supervisory institutions.

1. Introduction Developments on informatics and technology have accelerated need for finance knowledge and finance education. In order to operate finance system, knowledge-users should be educated within the terms of developments; one of the responsible institutions is universities which could provide this kind of education. It is important for universities to transfer finance knowledge suitable for needs with an update form. During financial education, constructing an interaction between the practice and the theory through evaluating the expectations of the practice will contribute substantially to the development of financial education. It has seen that there are various initiatives for development of financial education. On the basis of such initiatives there has been contemporary financial information which can meet the expectations of the practice as well as transfer them to the knowledge-users effectively. Such initiatives could be related with both information transfer process and structure of transferred financial information. The developments in the field of informatics have provided to carry out computer-aided presentations in

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics - Issue 64 (2011)

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financial education, to use distance learning techniques at different levels and to use simulation techniques as an advanced method. Efficiency in financial education comes with the coherence in expectations of practice.In this way, in order to develop financial education, expectation and proposals for the practice should be evaluated in the framework of feedback mechanism. In this study, the opinions of experts and managers of regulatory and supervisory public institutions within the financial system where financial knowledge is widely used have been evaluated and also their recommendations towards financial education are included.

2. The Importance of Financial Knowledge and Financial Education Today it has seen that financial knowledge and financial education is getting increasingly important. Financial knowledge is mandatory not only for investors but also for many points such as the budget of an average family and education of their children. When it is evaluated in individual terms, financial education is important in contributing consumers’ budgets and income management, assessing investment and savings effectively, preventing individuals from fraud and deception. (OECD 2005:2) When it is evaluated in national economy, existence of finance educated individuals especially in developing countries could be helpful in development of financial system, effective distribution of income and reducing poverty. (OECD 2006:1) Many decision makers regarding economy have created a consensus on effectiveness of financial education in every segment of community. (Hopley 2003: 11). It has been seen that financial education has become increasingly important in development of economic growth. According to research by OECD, it has seen that in many countries including developed ones financial education indicators are fairly low. For instance, in a research it has been concluded that 71% of participants in Japan are ignorant about stock and bond investments. As per another research in Canada making investment decision on retirement plan is more difficult than visiting a dentist. (OECD 2006:1.4). At this juncture, need for financial knowledge covers a very large spectrum including not only basic information that individuals need but also investment strategies in institutional portfolios. One of the sides that need financial knowledge is regulatory and supervisory institutions. Evolving of market economy as a model with effects of globalization and privatization, it has seen that regulatory and supervisory institutions which were first formed by the end of 19th century have started to spread at that time. (Karacan, 2002) These institutions that appear in financial markets also increasingly need financial knowledge as well. The main responsibles for transfering financial information are universities. However, in time, universities have turned their view from an institution which carries out education and research, produces information and disseminates this information into an institution which shapes its activities according to community’s needs. (Bayazıtlı 2000: 43). One of the primary things that has to be done regarding financial education at universities is determining current education in what extent it harmonizes with developments and meets needs. Accordingly, it is clear that as long as needs are met and required harmonization is achieved the quality of financial education can increase simultaneously. (Çelik ve Gürdal, 1999: 53). In an environment in which expectations of relevant parties and financial developments and innovations in the field of informatics are increasing gradually, universities have to emphasis on financial education and application of innovative approaches. When financial education is compared in international base, it has seen that it is not implemented in a specific standard and there are disparities both in curriculum and in recitation of course. In countries where there is an advanced financial knowledge, it is seen that with the increasing of necessity to it, financial education is developing as well.

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3. Financial Education in Turkey In Turkey financial education is basically instructed in parallel with account education in the same faculty. In Turkey in 91 universities out of 115 (85 of them are state, 31 of them are foundation and private university) have been giving financial education. (Higher Education Council, 2008) According to international standard classification of education, in the group of “work and management” there are 418.645 students in 2006-2007 academic years. As per another classification in 2006-2007 academic year, in the field of accounting and finance it is seen that 82 professors, 40 assistant professors, 125 associate professors, 25 academic personnel, 4 experts and 149 research assistants at total 425 academic personnel are employed. (Student Selection and Placement Center (OSYM) 2008, 346, Part 3: Table 25) Information regarding numbers of students and academic personnel in terms of universities and faculties where financial courses are instructed and also faculties where financial education is basically given in Turkey, can be seen in Table 1. Table 1:

Students and academic personnel in faculties Total Total number number of of academic students personnel

Professors

Faculty of Economic and 150.360 4661 811 Administrative sciences 3.554 250 62 Faculty of Political Sciences 363.504 487 106 Faculty of Management * 254.136 109 43 Faculty of Economics * 3.259 139 32 Faculty Commercial Sciences Faculty of Economics, 2.118 93 12 Administrative and Social Sciences * Including open-university programs. Taken From: (ÖSYM, 2008, s. 6) Statistics of 2006-2007 academic year Part 1 Table 3: Number of students and academic personnel in Education Units.

Assistant Professors

Associate Professors

Other

462

1.405

1.983

27 44 9 14

60 111 48 34

101 226 9 59

12

49

20

It has seen that finance courses instructed in faculties have been given as of 5th term. Even though nature of finance courses are similar, names of them are different from each other. Determining basic factors like nature of finance courses at undergraduate level, curriculum and minimum credit for courses, after that cooperation among institutions and/or universities will contribute to improve finance education.

4. Literature on Financial Education In the evaluations about providing effective teaching at undergraduate level, students in teaching process and other relevant people’s point of views show difference from each other. It has been realized that student based evaluations associated with teaching process are carried out on four bases. (Worthington 2002: 49-50). i. Aspects related to the management of student evaluations; cover the issues such as which evaluation oriented questions is going to be asked, the purpose of the evaluation and how it should be timed, etc. ii. Aspects related to the course; effect of elective courses, course level, study area and issues including the obligations associated with the course are evaluated. iii. Aspects of instructors; cover issues such as experience, recognizability, research skills and physical features of educators. iv. Aspects related to students; preferential interest, sex, expected grade, student point of view and student age.


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In the evaluation of teaching process, along with student based evaluations, it is also possible to carry out evaluations from the point of views of experts and managers in institutions in which financial knowledge is intensively used. From this point of view the evaluation will be meaningful in terms of the effectiveness of financial education, the determination of the level of meeting the needs and being up-to-date. Effectiveness-increasing initiatives have gained importance as much as the determination of the effectiveness of undergraduate level financial education by means of appropriate scales. These initiatives can be curriculum concerning finance courses, course content and etc. as well as initiatives related to the transfer process of financial information to the students. In another study, the studies conducted in the field of financial education are classified under four groups (Krishnan, Bathala, Bhattacharya and Ritchey 1999): • Curriculum development; such initiatives are mostly related to the design and structuring of the financial area in terms of the curriculum. • Course development and the presentation of the courses; is especially related to the development and presentation of the capital market course and international finance courses. • Pedagogical means; is related to the effects of motivation and learning strategies on academic performance. • Initiatives regarding faculty career. The initiatives oriented to the development of financial education can be examined under 6 titles: i. Case Study Method It is known that usage of case study method in the fields of management and financial education has a long history and has been accepted as an effective method. In case study method, determining which case study should be chosen and how it should be used is significant. (Nunnally and Evans 2001: 4). As well as bringing effectiveness and timeliness, the use of case study method in financial education provides students decision making ability. Associating the case study with the appropriate course content and obtaining the required case studies can be achieved through developing the cooperation with financial institutions using financial knowledge intensely. ii. Assignment and Research In accelerating the effectiveness of finance courses, students’ efforts, assignments and researches are important. Nonetheless, there is no consensus on the elements affecting the performance of students in finance courses. While in some studies it has been concluded as there is no meaningful relationship between the study hours reported by students and their performance regarding finance courses, some studies has shown that there is a meaningful relationship between the time consumed in repeated nature sources on computer and the performance (Rich 2006: 121). It is obvious that instructors’directions to students for making them study by means of research oriented assignments and similar elements will enhance the performance of the students. However, overdoing of such elements may affect success negatively. i. Distance Education Methods It is indicated that the history of distance learning process dates back to the practice associated with agriculture courses performed in Pennsylvania University in 1890s (Shum and Chan 2000: 175-176). Distance learning is a planned schooling process which transfers education to relevant parties through technologies lying in a wide range and documents the said process. A study which was mainly about finance courses and conducted by Shum and Chan (2000), showed that students taking distance learning were more successful. However, when control variable elements are considered the said students demonstrate a low level of success which is statistically significant. It has been emphasized that distance learning method in finance courses has a low impact and it must be used along with other methods.

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ii. Initiatives Oriented to the Expectations of Practitioners It is seen that the expectations of practitioners have been evaluated. Lemire (2000) conducted a study regarding a financial management course at the level of executive nurses and general managers in health centers. In this study it was aimed to determine the elements and requirements that could be effective on the development of the infrastructure of the undergraduate level financial management course through the opinions of health managers. This study which was carried out in the field of executive nursing indicates that the expectations and recommendations of the practice should be evaluated as a feedback mechanism during the education process in financial education as well. Through undergraduate level financial education, students should have knowledge and judgement skills for circumstances they may encounter in their working areas after graduation. Accordingly, maintaining information exchange related to financial education between universities and the practice, and arranging finance courses and their content in cooperation is important. iii. Timeliness and the Provision of Cooperation between Institutions The provision of timeliness in financial education is as important as the provision of effectiveness. For the purpose of providing timeliness in financial education, a number of different methods can be used such as the attendance of experts to lectures who apply their financial knowledge directly on business life and establishing the cooperation between the institutions in the field of finance. The Finance and General Business Department at Southwest Missouri State University has been organizing a 12 month academic study and tour program biennially since 1978 with the students selected by faculty administration. In this context after attending lectures, performing required researches and text reading and visiting institutions with which cooperation was established, general evaluations have been made. (Bixler and Squires 1998). In this study updating of financial education has been aimed. As in this example, cooperation among institutions (even among universities) where financial knowledge is widely used will be effective in developing financial education. Similar activities will provide opportunity to make synergy in different fields among these groups. iv. The Use of Simulation Techniques (or Games) Recent developments in the field of informatics have leaded to the use of innovative approaches in education. The primary one among them is the simulation techniques (games) (1) performed in the field of management. It is seen that simulation techniques have been used in especially management postgraduate programs and in some undergraduate programs (Industry Player Business Simulation Games 2008). A study carried out by Wolfe and Gold (2007) has shown that in simulation techniques (2) a lot of financial information ranging from the distribution of the profit to the flow of cash have been presented to the users at different levels of knowledge. Simulation techniques are important in terms of combining theoretical information given in financial education with the decision making skills of the students. Simulation techniques are supposed to be a significant part of the education process in the future since it combines the information presented to the students with the practice. It is seen that in Turkey the studies oriented to financial education are limited when compared to especially accounting education. The studies carried out on financial education are mostly related to the transfer process of courses and their perceptions by students. In a study conducted by Gücenme and Karabıyık (1999), it has been concluded that the distribution of academic staff in faculties giving accounting and financial education is unbalanced. However, it is reported that problems such as the nonconformance of syllabuses with business life, insufficiency of education tools, the attendance of students and its effect on success have not been evaluated.


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Yücel (2000) has evaluated the opinions of students taking the corporate finance course for the first time in three different schools in order to plan the introduction to finance course content and develop its structure and transfer. With this study, it has been concluded that the said course is difficult but at the same time interesting and it is beneficial for all areas of business administration, for daily life and other courses. One of the reasons why students select this course is their desire to work in a job requiring financial knowledge. It has been detected that the interest of students to finance has increased after taking the course. However, it has also been concluded that the use of case studies in courses is not at the level expected by the students. In a study carried out by Korkmaz (2000), it has also been emphasized that in order to develop the financial education in Turkey, it has to be compared with that of the developed countries and its development must be taken into consideration. A study by Toraman (2001) has laid stress on the use of technology in financial education in Turkey and online financial education. Besides, in this study, the requirements for a better online financial education and how the communication rules should be have been stated and a practice proposal regarding the feasibility of it in our country has been presented A study by Civan and Cenger (2004) has highlighted the importance of financial education and the expectations from financial education. The importance of providing the presentation quality in financial education and the reconsideration of financial education at universities on the bases of vocational schools of higher education and faculties has been emphasized. In addition, in parallel with the technological developments, the requirement for online finance education has been pointed out. A study by Sayın et al. (2005) has evaluated the effectiveness of accounting and financial education from students’ points of view and the expectations of them. An intermediate level positive and significant relation has been found between the level of utilization of technological tools and the level of success. Another result is the adequacy of the course content in terms of business life. However, no significant relation has been found between the level of importance ascribed by students on the occupation of accounting and finance and their success. v. Aim of the Study Aim of this study is determining currency, adequacy and conformance of financial courses at undergraduate level in terms of institutions where financial knowledge is widely used. vi. The Scope of the Study and Research Method In the scope of this study the experts and managers of public institutions and autonomous institutions who use financial knowledge intensely have been specified as the target group. Accordingly, the results achieved through the viewpoints of people working at expert and manager positions in relevant institutions are assessed as follows; • The efficiency of financial education, • The timeliness of financial education, • The effectiveness of financial education A survey had been used on experts and managers using financial knowledge in 16 institutions and who had received finance courses in undergraduate education have been accessed using in-house electronic mail groups and through face to face interview method. One-sample t test has been used in order to test whether the questions asked to the participants within the research are different from the mean value (undecided option in the study). Besides, some evaluations have been carried out using descriptive statistics of the results. SPSS 13.0 program has been used in evaluating the data.

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5. Results of the Research A total of 308 experts and managers from relevant institutions have been accessed. It is seen that 212 of (68.8%) participants are men and 96 (31.1%) of them are women. Education level of the participants are 232 (75,3%) of them are at graduate level, 67 (21,7%) of them are at master’s level and 8 (2,5%) of them are at doctorate level. When it’s determining in demographic base, age group 26-35 is the highest participants of the survey with level of 57.5%. age group 18-25 are following this group with level of %24 and 36-45 age group is the last with level of %15. Age group 45 and higher is at level of %3. When %82 of the participants are age of 35 or under is taking into consideration, it is seen that they have been newly graduated. It is seen that 64.6% of the participants graduated on 2000 or later. The fact that participants have graduated predominantly in recent years and that they were informed about the content of current education is important in the evaluation of undergraduate level financial education given. The average of total working experience of participants is 6.55 years and the average of working experience in current institutions is 5.11 years. Those with working experience up to 1 year in current institutions constitute 11.4%, up to 2 years 42.4%, up to 3 years 56.1% and up to 5 years 66.8 of the participants. The fact that a significant part of the participants have graduated recently and that they are within the first year of their career is significant in evaluating the information obtained at undergraduate level. Reliability analysis has been conducted in order to determine the consistency between each of the questions asked to the participants in the research and the homogeneity in the evaluation of the questions. Cronbach Alpha value is widely used in measuring the reliability of questions asked in surveys in the field of social sciences. Cronbach Alpha value of Alpha coefficient is stated to be a powerful tool in reflecting the level of reliability (L.Leech, C.Barrett and A.Morgan 2005: 63). When the questions asked to the participants in the survey are considered collectively, Cronbach Alpha value, the reliability level of the scale, has been found to be 92.6%. The evaluations of the practitioners are important in terms of obtaining recommendations related to increasing the effectiveness of finance courses and the determination of appropriateness for purpose and timeliness of finance courses with regard to their content. The fact that the participants within the scope of the research were predominantly informed about the current education is significant in terms of reflecting the expectations in practice. Since this value is greatly higher than 60% level, which is stated as the reliability threshold, this scale has been concluded to be reliable. Moreover, since it is higher than 80% (Akgül and Çevik 2003) it is highly reliable. Hotelling’s T2 test could also be used to test the appropriateness of the model consisting of the questions in the survey. Through this test, whether the averages of the questions are equal to each other or not are tested. Accordingly, the averages of the questions asked in the survey have been concluded to be statistically different are shown in table 2. (sig=0.000). Table 2:

Hotelling's T2 Test

Hotelling's T-Squared 1624.394

F 41.915

df1 34

df2 236

Sig .000

5.1. The Results on the Efficiency of Financial Education It is seen that the participants are statistically undecided for question 1.1 regarding the adequacy of financial education at undergraduate level and they agree with the statements evidently at 0.05 significance level in other questions. The participants are statistically undecided regarding the adequacy of the weight of finance courses in undergraduate education. When provided answers are considered, it is seen that departments are statistically different from each other. Accordingly, it is understood that the participants from management and finance departments find the weight of finance courses in undergraduate education as sufficient and the participants from other departments as insufficient.

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While 35.6% of the participants think that financial education given at undergraduate level does not satisfy the needs of the institutions and only 27.7% of them think that it does. A majority of those answering the question thinks that such needs are satisfied on a limited scale. Therefore, it has been concluded that finance courses are inadequate in meeting the needs of the institutions. However, Table 3 reveals that there is a statistically meaningful relation between the consideration of financial education at undergraduate level as adequate and the satisfaction of the need of the institutions by financial education at undergraduate level. Table 3:

Crosstabs Statistics

Ordinal by Ordinal

Kendall's tau-b Kendall's tau-c Gamma

N of Valid Cases

Ordinal by Ordinal

Somers' d

Symmetric S1.1 Dependent S1.2 Dependent

Value .509 .484 .647 .305

Asymp. Std. Error .039 .039 .046

Approx. T 12.347 12.347 12.347

Value

Asymp. Std. Error (a)

.509 .526 .493

.039 .040 .039

Approx. T (b) 12.347 12.347 12.347

Approx. Sig. .000 .000 .000 Approx. Sig. .000 .000 .000

Finance courses at undergraduate level in terms of understanding the actual financial structure of the institutions and companies which participants encounter, are realized as inadequate according to 42.5% and adequate according to 24.2%. It has been concluded that undergraduate level finance courses do not efficiently meet the needs of the institutions and they are inadequate in terms of understanding actual financial structures of the encountered institutions and companies. It is realized that 59.2% of the participants think that increasing the weight of undergraduate level financial education will affect the effectiveness of finance courses and 14.4% of them think it will not. Strongly Disagree % 1.1 1.2 1.3

1.4

Weight of finance courses in undergraduate education you got is adequate Finance courses satisfactorily meet needs of the institutions Undergraduate level finance courses are adequate in terms of understanding actual financial structures of relevant companies/institutions you have met in your work

Increasing weight of finance courses in undergraduate education

Disagree

Undecided

Agree

%

%

%

Strongly Agree %

15.0

21.6

21.9

28.1

13.4

10.8

24.8

36.6

23.5

4.2

13.4

29.1

33.3

18.6

5.6

Does not affect at all %

Does not affect %

Undecided

Affects

%

%

Absolutely affects %

5.4

9.0

26.4

31.1

28.1

When obtained the results regarding the adequacy of finance courses are considered collectively, it has been concluded that finance courses do not satisfy the needs of the institutions completely and increasing the weight of undergraduate level finance courses will affect the effectiveness of finance courses.

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5.2. The Results on the Timeliness of Financial Education It has been concluded that the participants are undecided in questions 2.1 and 2.2 regarding the timeliness of financial education and they have a certain opinion regarding other questions. Accordingly, it is seen that they are undecided about the sufficiency of the contemporary issues and applications in finance courses in undergraduate education and when the situations they encountered within their institutions considered. 45.4% of the participants stated that finance course instructors are not far from the developments in the market and they are not just at the theoretical level; on the other hand, 27.9% of them stated the vice versa. A great majority of the participants, 84.9% of them, agreed with the argument ‘Practitioners and/or managers should be involved in the lectures in order to understand the practice in undergraduate level finance courses’. Regarding the question ‘evaluating contemporary issues and developments’ asked to the participants about the provision of timeliness in undergraduate level financial education, a high rate of participants, 80% of them, mentioned that it will affect financial education. 74.9% of the participants think that the attendance of practitioners/managers to the lectures will affect finance courses positively. Strongly Disagree % 2.1

2.2 2.3 2.4

2.5 2.6

Contemporary issues and practice have been sufficiently considered in finance courses you got during your undergraduate education Given work carried out within your institution, contemporary issues are handled in undergraduate level finance courses Instructors in universities are far from developments in the market and at theoretical level in finance lectures Practitioners and/or managers should be involved to the lectures in order to understand the practice in undergraduate level finance courses

Evaluating contemporary issues/ developments Attendance of practitioners and managers to lectures

Disagree

Undecided

Agree

%

%

%

Strongly Agree %

13.1

24.6

24.6

28.2

9.5

10.3

25.6

31.6

26.2

6.3

14.1

31.3

26.6

18.4

9.5

0.7

2.9

11.4

40.5

44.4


Does not affect %

Undecided

Affects

%

%


3.0

5.7

11.4

37.5

42.5

2.0

6.0

17.1

29.4

45.5

It is understood that instructors are not far from contemporary developments in finance courses at undergraduate level and giving weight to contemporary issues in courses and the attendance of practitioners/managers to the lectures will affect finance courses positively. 5.3. The Results on Increasing the Effectiveness of Financial Education In all of the questions associated with increasing the effectiveness of financial education, the participants are seen to be a party, which is clearly statistical. According to the achieved results, undergraduate level financial education does not satisfactorily meet the needs of the institutions and there are discrepancies between financial education and working area. While 55.7% of the participants do not agree with the idea ‘There are discrepancies between education you got in finance courses and the practice in your working area’ 14.6% of them agree it.

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76.4% of the participants stated that courses in financial education and their content should be determined in cooperation with the institutions. Similarly, in recommendations about accelerating the effectiveness of financial education, for finance courses 69.1% and for the content of finance courses 64.6% of participants say that they should be determined in cooperation with the institutions. Accordingly, it has been concluded that undergraduate level financial education should be determined in cooperation between universities and institutions through specifying the needs of the institutions. Strongly Disagree % 3.1 3.2

3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7

There are discrepancies between education you got in finance courses and practice in your working area Finance courses and their content should be determined in cooperation with universities and institutions

Determination of courses in institutional cooperation Determination of content of courses in institutional cooperation Usage of distance learning techniques Giving weight to case studies Giving assignments/projects oriented to research

Disagree

Undecided

Agree

%

%

%

Strongly Agree %

24.0

31.7

29.7

10.3

4.3

2.3

5.6

15.7

41.8

34.6


Does not affect %

Undecided

Affects

%

%


4.4

7.7

18.8

37.2

31.9

2.7

8.4

24.4

33.8

30.8

15.5 3.3

23.6 5.7

39.2 9.4

12.8 27.1

8.8 54.5

4.0

5.0

16.4

27.5

47.0

The participants think that the use of distance learning techniques will not increase the effectiveness of financial education. Accordingly, only 21.6% of the participants think that distance learning techniques will be useful. It has been concluded that giving weight to case studies will affect the effectiveness of financial education positively with the rate of 81.6% and the using of assignments and projects related to research with rate of74.5%. When considered along with the results in this section, it has been concluded that there is no discrepancy between the business in working areas of institutions and finance courses; however, in terms of finance courses, cooperation between institutions should be established, case study methods should be used and assignments/projects oriented to research should be included.

6. Summary and Concluding Remarks Financial knowledge, which is gaining more and more importance for all parts of the society, is provided basically by financial education at undergraduate level. Meeting the needs of the parties gains importance so as to increase the effectiveness in financial education. Accordingly, the studies oriented to financial education should be taken into consideration as well as the studies oriented to research in the field of finance at universities. By means of this study, the opinions of experts and managers who are officiating in institutions of regulatory and supervisory nature within the scope of the financial system, on financial education at undergraduate level have been evaluated. It has been concluded that the participants are undecided about the weight of undergraduate level finance courses within the program. However, it is possible to evaluate this situation as the weight of finance courses in undergraduate education is not adequate in terms of developing financial education. Nevertheless, it has been concluded that there is a statistically significant relation between the adequacy of the weight of finance courses in undergraduate education and the level of satisfying the needs of the institutions. Accordingly, it can be said that as the weight of

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undergraduate level finance courses increases, the level of satisfaction of the needs of the institutions will also increase. It has been concluded that the instructors in the field of finance have caught timeliness, but contemporary practice is not used at a definite level in finance courses. Giving weight to contemporary practice in finance courses and providing the attendance of experts/managers to the lectures will enhance timeliness of financial education. Efficiency accelerated case event has shown that there should be studies about research for instance; assignments. It has been concluded that distance learning will not make any efficiency on finance education. The application of such method in education process as a supporting element, and the use of simulation techniques at an appropriate level in order to develop decision-making skills of the students could increase the effectiveness of financial education. The provision of effectiveness in financial education depends on the determination of expectations of the institutions using financial knowledge intensely and accordingly the determination of their content in inter-institutional cooperation. By this way, appropriate solutions in terms of expectations and recommendations of the practice could be offered and the effectiveness and development in financial education could be provided. As a result, in order to accelerate the efficiency of financial education, accordingly the expectations of practice, course contents should be re-regulated. For providing timeliness in finance education, in the framework of financial developments, there should be steady cooperation among universities and administrative institutions. Accelerating the efficiency of financial education, projects on case events and researches should be implemented.

Appendix 1: T Test Results Question No

Mean

t

One-Sample Test df Sig. (2tailed)

Questions Regarding the Adequacy of Financial Education 1.1 3.03 .447 305 .655 1.2 2.86 -2.434 305 .015 * 1.3 2.74 -4.227 305 .000 * 1.4 3.68 10.297 298 .000 * Questions Regarding the Timeliness of Financial Education 2.1 2.96 -.526 304 .600 2.2 2.93 -1.167 300 .244 2.3 3.22 3.248 303 .001 * 2.4 4.25 26.666 305 .000 * 2.5 4.11 18.873 298 .000 * 2.6 4.10 18.718 298 .000 * Questions Regarding Increasing the Effectiveness of Financial Education 3.1 2.39 -9.635 299 .000 * 3.2 4.01 18.275 305 .000 * 3.3 3.85 13.392 297 .000 * 3.4 3.82 13.473 298 .000 * 3.5 2.76 -3.695 295 .000 * 3.6 4.24 20.268 298 .000 * 3.7 4.08 17.117 297 .000 *

Test Value = 3 = Undecided MeanDiffe 95% Confidence Interval rence of the Difference Lower Upper .033 -.144 -.261 .676

-.11 -.26 -.38 .55

.18 -.03 -.14 .80

-.036 -.073 .220 1.252 1.107 1.104

-.17 -.20 .09 1.16 .99 .99

.10 .05 .35 1.34 1.22 1.22

-.607 1.010 .846 .816 -.243 1.237 1.084

-.73 .90 .72 .70 -.37 1.12 .96

-.48 1.12 .97 .94 -.11 1.36 1.21

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International Research Journal of Finance and Economics - Issue 64 (2011) Questions Regarding the Structure of Financial Education 4.1 3.89 11.708 296 4.2 3.47 6.207 295 4.3 3.33 4.009 295 4.4 3.15 1.791 296 4.5 3.53 6.563 295 4.6 3.38 4.605 292 4.7 3.63 8.643 296 4.8 3.43 5.806 294 4.9 3.11 1.413 292 4.10 3.62 7.867 293 4.11 3.52 6.573 295 4.12 3.41 5.636 294 4.13 3.32 4.320 291 4.14 3.44 5.551 295 Law 4.30 22.245 300 Statistics 3.06 .844 298 Econometrics 2.59 -5.415 295 Capital Markets 3.27 3.356 296 Tax 3.67 8.975 293 ManagementOrganization 2.99 -.173 296 Marketing 2.08 -13.579 293 Human Resources 2.27 -10.299 294 Management Economics 3.21 2.681 296 Competition Law 2.37 -8.876 294 Questions Regarding Financial Education and Career Target 5.1 2.78 -2.806 303 5.2 3.50 7.071 307 5.3 3.01 .138 303

.000 * .000 * .000 * .074 ** .000 * .000 * .000 * .000 * .159 .000 * .000 * .000 * .000 * .000 * .000 * .399 .000 * .001 * .000 * .862 .000 * .000 * .008 * .000 *

.892 .470 .331 .148 .534 .375 .626 .434 .113 .619 .517 .410 .322 .443 1.302 .060 -.405 .269 .667 -.013 -.918 -.729 .209 -.627

.74 .32 .17 -.01 .37 .21 .48 .29 -.04 .46 .36 .27 .18 .29 1.19 -.08 -.55 .11 .52 -.17 -1.05 -.87 .06 -.77

1.04 .62 .49 .31 .69 .54 .77 .58 .27 .77 .67 .55 .47 .60 1.42 .20 -.26 .43 .81 .14 -.79 -.59 .36 -.49

.005 * .000 * .890

-.220 .503 .010

-.37 .36 -.13

-.07 .64 .15

Appendix 2: The Distribution of Participants According to Their Institutions Sex Institutions

Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Supreme Audit Board BRSA (Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency) Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry State Planning Organization) Energy Market Regulatory Authority Export Credit Bank of Turkey Income Controllership Undersecretariat of Treasury Tax Inspectors Board Inspection Board of Finance Central Bank of Republic of Turkey Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Privatization Administration Turkish Competition Authority Turkish Court of Accounts Capital Markets Board of Turkey Information and Communication Technologies Authority Turkish Accounting Standards Board Total

Education Level

Freq.

%

Man

Woman

Bachelor’s Degree

Master’s Degree

PhD Degree

13

4.2

11

2

11

2

0

14

4.5

6

8

13

1

0

26

8.4

20

6

20

6

0

6

1.9

6

0

2

3

1

14 1 67 10 8 26

4.5 0.3 21.8 3.2 2.6 8.4

4 1 49 10 8 14

10 0 18 0 0 12

7 0 53 8 7 17

7 1 12 2 0 9

0 0 1 0 1 0

14

4.5

10

4

11

2

1

9 58 37

2.9 18.8 12.0

8 44 18

1 14 19

5 52 22

2 6 14

2 0 1

2

0.6

2

0

1

0

1

3

1.0

2

1

3

0

0

308

100%

213

95

232

67

8

92


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