First-year at university: the effect of academic employability skills and physical quality of life on students' well-being.

BACKGROUND With increasing access at European universities, supporting and promoting the high education, students' mental well-being and generic employability capacities have become priorities, but their respective influences, after an adaptation period of seven months, remain unclear. OBJECTIVE Our aims were to analyse the relationships between students' well-being and self-perceived academic employability skills, and other social and environmental factors. METHODS Three hundred and twenty-one freshmen students at the end of their first year completed an online questionnaire. Two instruments were used to assess well-being: the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), which explores psychological suffering, and the psychological quality of life subdomain of the Whoqol-bref. RESULTS Psychological Whoqol-bref scores are linked to the academic employability skills (AES) items of drafting, critical spirit, problem-solving, teamwork, and supervision/direction of others, and has positive effects on AES score and on the following Whoqol-bref domains: physical, social relationships and environmental. Although three of six psychological Whoqol-bref items (ability to concentrate, satisfaction with self, negative feelings) are correlated with GHQ-12 items (sleeping, decision-making, feeling under strain, problem-solving, depression, self-confidence, thinking about self, feeling happy). GHQ-12 score is negatively linked with Whoqol-bref physical. CONCLUSIONS For better quality of life, and improved employability skills, innovative activities should be developed to ascertain the sustainable academic's abilities of students.