Does Perceived Employability Affect Life Satisfaction? Findings from Munzur University Students

Abstract

This study analyzes the factors affecting the general life satisfaction of students at Munzur University, one of the universities established after 2006 in Turkey. To that end, we use data from a questionnaire survey conducted at Munzur University. We then predict a hierarchical linear regression that includes university students’ satisfaction variables related to non-university domain (income, their use of leisure time, health and family relations) and university domain (academic and physical opportunities, perceived employability and overall evaluation). Our findings indicate that satisfaction derived from non-university sub-domains impact their general life satisfaction positively. Perceived employability has the most predictive power in the broad model that includes university domain. We discuss this finding regarding how students’ employment expectation in their post-graduation lives is the main determinant with respect to their general life satisfaction in the context of increasing graduate unemployment in Turkey.