Read More: Regents push for mandatory freshmen financial literacy course

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education are trying to mandate that universities provide some type of financial education to college students, despite the fact that 67 percent of students don’t think they need such education.

Good idea?

Sure, if they were the Oklahoma Regents for high school education.

But they aren’t.

The wrong people are taking this on. So they’re going to end up wasting state money to teach students how not to waste money.

Personal finance education isn’t a bad thing, but it has no place at a university. High school, the same place where students receive sexual education, driver’s education and drug education, should be the place for instilling financial responsibility.

If they must make finances part of higher education, the Regents and universities need to go about it in a different way.

Rather than enforcing mandatory sessions where students go and fall asleep while one of their peers is paid more than $20 per hour to present a PowerPoint presentation, orientation sessions and handouts could refer incoming freshmen to a Web site where they can learn the ins and outs of financial prudence.

Or, a one-hour, online credit course available to anyone who wants to take it would suffice. An optional Student Success Series lecture would also be a good idea.

Regardless of the structure of the program, it should not be mandatory. Trying to force college students to learn personal responsibility isn’t going to work.

The university is a place for scholarship and higher education, not for practical life lessons that can be learned just as well elsewhere.