Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the study aims to examine the direct effect of illicit financial flows (IFF) and quality of governance (QoG) on economic growth. Second, this study seeks to examine the moderating effect of QoG on the economic consequences of IFF. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data from nine The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries for the period of 10 years from 2008 to 2019. The study concerned an analysis of the testing of a conceptual framework which based on secondary data which may lack a comprehensive substantiation on the grounds of measurement theory. A partial least squares (PLS) modelling using the SmartPLS 3.2.8 version was used as a statistical tool to examine the measurement and structural model. Findings Key findings provide empirical support on the effect of IFF and QoG on economic growth. It also confirmed that QoG significantly moderated the relationship between IFF and economic growth by reducing the negative impact of IFF on economic growth. Practical implications Immediate corrective action needs to be implemented by policymakers of ASEAN countries to strengthen QoG to effectively curb IIF activities. Originality/value This study provides current empirical evidence on the relationship of IFF, QoG and economic growth within ASEAN countries.

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between budgeting skills and financial goals and the level of awareness of investment scams among university students. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was administered to university students in Malaysia. A total of 211 responses were received. The data was analysed using partial least square method based on structural equation modelling technique by using SmartPLS-3.0 and SPSS-20 statistical software. Findings Findings indicated that having adequate budgeting skills can significantly affect awareness of investment scam among students. This implies that early financial management education among students should focus on instilling disciplined budgeting habit to prevent them from becoming victims of investment scams. Nevertheless, when examining financial goals among the respondents, the study found that having a clear financial goal does not significantly contribute to their awareness in identifying investment scams. As such, students need to be properly guided in setting their financial objectives such as avoiding unrealistic goals to lead a luxurious lifestyle using “fast and easy” money. Social implications This study recommends that higher education institutions need to work together with relevant regulators and law enforcers in providing necessary financial literacy education as part of the investment scam prevention measures. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature gap on the need to focus on financial literacy in creating awareness towards investment scams among university students.

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The outbreak of Covid-19 in 2019 has forced institutions of higher learning in Malaysia to switch to open distance learning (ODL). As the implementation was done abruptly, there were concerns raised on whether the students were actually ready to undergo the new learning system. This study examines the different factors that may influence students' readiness in undergoing ODL in a higher education setting. It also investigates the relationships between those factors and how they contribute towards the students' actual performance during ODL. These investigations are important as it provides an empirically-proven data and perspectives on how students actually perform in their studies during ODL; an area which the researchers believe is still lacking and requires further inquiries. The data for the study was gathered from a questionnaire distributed online to 111 students. The questionnaire consisted of items looking into the students' demographic data, their self-directedness, learning preference, study habits and equipment capabilities while undergoing ODL. The elicited data were then analysed using ordinal logistic regression model and empirical illustration to yield an in-depth analysis between the factors involved in the study. The major findings of this study show that students' readiness towards ODL are indeed influenced by their demographic factors such as their parents' education background, the telco services they use, and the availability of proper equipment as learning aids. Furthermore, the application of ordinal logistic regression in the current research shows that students who possess a high readiness in undergoing ODL tend to produce better results in their studies during the pandemic. Apart from that, the study also reported new findings that indicate students' study habits bore no effect on their readiness to go through ODL. This is rather odd as positive study habits are commonly associated with a high readiness to undergo a new learning system, which is not the case for the participants in this study. Another puzzling finding also reveals that the students' equipment capabilities have a negative relationship with their performance in ODL. This means that even if some participants do not have the necessary equipment to actively undergo ODL, they do not feel that their performance in their studies are negatively affected. These new findings are certainly inconsistent with the results shown in previous, similar studies. Hence, it is recommended that future researchers look into why students' typical study habits are not

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Malaysian citizens should be aware of their basic rights under the Federal Constitution known as 'fundamental liberties'. However, not many citizens are aware of their basic rights and research on the awareness of citizen's basic rights is sparse. Thus, this study intended to develop a measurement instrument which can later be used to analyse the factors that constitutes the awareness of fundamental liberties among students. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to find the factors that will be the measurement instrument in identifying the awareness of fundamental liberties among students. This research employed a quantitative research design where an online questionnaire responded by 455 university students was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24. A total of 3 factors consist of 17 items were extracted from the exploratory factor analysis. The results will be the measurement instrument for further analysis on the awareness of fundamental liberties among students.