Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model on perceived employability in university students, based on personal and contextual factors. Design/methodology/approach The authors use structural equation modelling to estimate a model that includes a set of variables, previously validated at exploratory and confirmatory levels, in order to measure personal and contextual factors involved in perceived employability. The sample comprises 816 university students selected by a stratified procedure. Findings The model explains how perceived employability in university students is built up. It identifies the involved factors and their level of influence and provides statistically valid and reliable measures for these factors. Research limitations/implications This study develops an integrated model which explains more than previous ones to know perceived employability of university students by combining personal and contextual factors. A limitation of the study lies in the use of a cross-sectional design, and the specificities of the cultural context as well as consideration of the labour market situation. Generalizing the results to other cultural contexts requires caution. Practical implications The model explains perceived employability in university students and provides validated scales at confirmatory level that can be used for futures studies in sociology, behavioural psychology, human resources management or education. The model and scales also serve as tools for evaluation that can be used by those responsible for such personal or contextual factors. Originality/value The development of an integrated model that explains perceived employability to a much higher degree than previous models.

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This paper develops and validates, at a confirmatory level, a second-order scale to measure Responsibility of the University in Employability (RUE). First, the literature on the components of RUE is explored and a formative conceptual model is proposed to underpin its measurement using extant research in the field of organisational responsibility and employability. At the empirical level, the second-order RUE model considers the reputation of the university, the teaching staff, and the matching activities with employers as components of RUE. This model is based on five empirical studies. The first is a small-sample study based on the opinions of experts (n = 5) and the rest are based on representative samples of university students (n = 816, n = 1,082, n = 1,088, and n = 1,203). A very good fit between model and data were revealed (CFI = 0.975; RMSEA = 0.039; standardised X 2 = 2.676). The results indicate that matching activities with employers and teaching staff generate more RUE than university reputation. Guidelines are offered for managing the responsibility of the university in employability.