The European Higher Education Area was implemented more than a decade ago with the aim of improving internationally the
competitiveness of European university education putting the spotlight on skills and competence development (and not only on
knowledge acquisition). This work intends to analyze the impact of competence-based teaching methodologies on university
students, as well as to contribute to the study of the individual personality traits differences regarding this impact. For this, a
descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted with a non-randomised sample of university students. The sample
was composed of a total of 499 students of the University of Huelva (350 from the Health Sciences degree, and 149 form other
degrees), who completed a questionnaire on professional skills and teaching methods developed ad hoc for this research, as well as
the brief version of the Spanish adaptation of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. The results show that Health Sciences students feel
more satisfied with the most participative and active methodologies, and they consider these better contribute to their future
professional competence development. On the other hand, in relation to the big 5 personality traits studied, links have been found
between competence development perception and personal preferences and the dimensions of extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness and openness to experience. This last factor, openness to experience, appears when analyzing the main
differences among both groups, being Health Sciences students more intellectually curious, showing more openness and diversity of
interests, in addition to being more creative, innovative, and flexible.