East and Central European Students’ Financial Self-Sufficiency During Their University Years

Abstract

Identifying the problems of youth requires taking into account the transformational processes that affect individuals’ development, the formation of a certain social environment, and changing youth market orientation priorities. The current orientations of youth – inflated expectations, aspirations for a quality education, employment, higher-status achievement, improved financial status, etc. – contradict the reality that in fact involves limited access to social status and professional realization, thereby creating barriers to fulfilment. The novelty of this research is that we evaluate the literature and empirical data and examine the self-sufficiency of university students in post-socialist countries as a factor in their adulthood and an indicator of life readiness according to the principles of a democratic society and rules of the market economy. The study aims to determine the role of economic factors in the process of obtaining a higher education for students in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine) through an analysis of students’ financial self-sufficiency during their university years. The presented research results demonstrate students’ financial selfsufficiency during their university studies and the proportion of students’ average monthly expenses in relation to income. The comparative analysis confirms that the respondents’ financial situation in the five countries under study is almost identical.