Wook Endut

Awareness and Socialisation of Consumer Rights Among UKM Students

Youth is often the target of marketers. This is due to the fact that youth constitute a huge volume in society and their buying behaviour is easily influenced through media and peers. Many companies target to satisfy the youth consumers’ needs and wants. As young consumers, youths are not always having the right tools to assess their wants and adjust to their buying capacity. When students in the university are already having low amount of pocket money, it is a challenge to spend the money wisely. Previous studies have shown that university students are attracted to having credit cards and tend to overspend to the extent of being declared bankrupt even before starting a career and paid job. In an attempt to avoid the fallacy of shopping sprees and being indebted, it is important that the young consumers have adequate knowledge on their consumer rights. This paper is based on research conducted in 2011, funded by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism. The sample comprises of 1008 students randomly selected at campus amenities’ areas and also the halls of residence, answering self administered close-ended questionnaire. Likert scale data was analysed using the SPSS 20 program to acquire mean scores and chi-square values. Respondents’ perception ranking of acquiring consumer rights was high for basic needs, while consumer values was moderate and the consumer socialisation was overall rated good.