- With social media consumption and skyrocketing tuition, Gen Z is facing financial confusion like never before. University leaders are hoping that by investing in financial literacy, they can navigate the true pathways to building success.
College campuses are often advertised as safe spaces where intellectual ideas can flow freely.
However, even though nearly 8 in 10 college students report that financial struggles are harming their mental health, and finances are the leading reason why some 42 million students have ditched the classroom, money remains a taboo topic for many Gen Zers.
There’s no question that the cost of college is a leading driver of angst, with the average public university student taking out $32,000 in student loans.In response, some universities are pouring millions of dollars into new financial wellness and literacy centers—and at some schools, it’s working.
At Indiana University (IU), which began prioritizing financial literacy in 2012, student loan borrowing has dropped 13% in the last decade. That’s a savings of nearly $73 million, even when tuition and fees for in-state students rose by nearly the same percentage. Moreover, while some 44% of students still graduate with student loan debt, the total amount they borrow is down 5.2%.
Phil Schuman, IU’s executive director of financial wellness and education, says schools are slowly realizing that financial wellness is critical to the success and health of students and institutions alike.
“Universities are seeing that parallel, where if students are stressed about their finances, and they’re not going to have the ability to focus on their academics, and if they can’t focus on their academics, their chances of succeeding are low,” he tells Fortune.
Financial wellness is critical to solving the Gen Z mental health crisis
The initiatives, like those at IU, offer students online and in-person resources on how to establish healthy money habits like budgeting, paying for study abroad, or dealing with interpersonal relationships. Plus, students can receive one-on-one advice from either a student or staff financial expert, or even request a financial education presentation for their class or club.
And universities across the country are catching on. In the last two years, institutions like the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina, and Washington University in St. Louis have announced investments in financial literacy. mental health, financial well-being is being seen as critical to success.
This is especially true for the current generation of college students who went through the pandemic during high school and experienced intellectual and social setbacks unlike any other prior generation. In 2020, before the pandemic, a survey of undergraduates at The Ohio State University found that finances were a leading source of stress for 68.1% of students. By 2023, that number rose to 72.5%.
While there’s plenty of blame to go around, one of the glaring changes has been the rapid rise in the cost of college. Over the last two decades, tuition and fees for private universities have increased by 41%, even when adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. News. For in-state public universities, which are often viewed as the better financial deal for lower-income students, costs have risen by 45%.
Moreover, social media’s glorification of sometimes unwise financial decisions, like buying now and paying later, betting on their favorite athletic teams, and investing in shiny new cryptocurrencies like memecoins, is likely also contributing to a growing financial burden on Gen Z.
On the flip side, technology has also made it easier than ever for young people to access smart financial information.
“There’s an overwhelming amount of information out there,” says Gilbert Rogers, inaugural director of the center at the University of North Carolina. “And what that does is, it’s a double-edged sword. It’s good that you have access to this info, but what’s reliable? What’s not reliable?”
Having a trusted campus center where students can seek guidance and confidence about their money is more important than ever, Rogers tells Fortune.
“There’s a lot of finance talk that the average person may get intimidated by, but it’s not so difficult once you break it down,” he adds.
The rise in personal finance education at the college level
Personal finance at the college level is nothing new. For years, universities have offered personal finance classes and resources, but some experts have voiced against having it be a graduation requirement (akin to the now 26 states mandating it in high schools)—with the primary reason being that students do better when they want to learn something versus being forced to do so.
However, it’s unclear whether this wait-and-come-to-me strategy is beneficial to the generation at large. After all, instead of currently talking about their financial woes, students are brushing them off like it’s a homework assignment they can procrastinate in perpetually. A recent study by Inituit found that Gen Zers would rather talk about politics, sex, or infertility than financial topics like debt, salaries, or bad investments.
Adam Nash, the former CEO of Wealthfront, has been teaching “Personal Finance for Engineers” at Stanford University for seven years. He tells Fortune that the subject is relatively rare, but probably should be taught to everyone in middle or high school.
“I think it’s wrong to send kids out into the world not understanding the basis of personal finance,” he says.
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Before the semester began last fall, he polled his students, who include freshmen undergraduates up to those in graduate school. Less than 10% reported not having student loans, and just over half reported not having their brokerage account.
In his course, Nash says he largely just focuses on the basics—because that’s ultimately what’s important (he even releases all of his lectures online, for those to access and learn).
“The biggest liability that smart people, intelligent people, have with money actually comes from in some ways over-complicating it,” he says.
And while Nash’s course is just one example of financial wellness education in action, it’s emblematic of the fact that teaching young people about money is a marathon, not a sprint.
“Don’t be afraid to make decisions and learn from your mistakes,” Nash wrote at the end of the semester. “(It’s) better to make them when the dollars are small and your responsibilities are few.”
And at a time when many schools are facing rising enrollment rates but declines in federal funding from DOGE cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Education, investing in financial literacy might just be the win-win some schools need. Not only can it help students remain enrolled, but it also helps lead them down a path toward success.
