Since most of the regular methods used before or during sexual intercourse, emergencyrncontraceptives are the only method that can be used within short time ajier sexual intercourse,rnoffering a second chance to prevent unwanted pregnancy Therefore, its introduction was arnwelcome addition for the campaign against unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.rnThe ultimate objective of the study is to assess the al/itude of female and male post-secondaryrnstudents and service providers tawards emergency contraception in Awassa town.rnA cross-sectional both quantitative and qualitative survey was conducted on March 2008 amongrnstudents of Awassa College of Teacher Education and Africa Beza University College Awassarncampus; which were randomly selected from non-health science colleges in the town. A surveyrnwas conducted through a structured queslionnaire among 596 female sludents of bOlh collegesrnthat were selected proportional 10 Ihe size of number of female sl!ldents in the colleges,rndepartmentdstreams and year of study (batch). Sixteen female and sixteen male sludents ji-omrneach college were participants of the four FGDs held on the same time and key informantsrninterview was carried out among seven health care providers working in Ihe selected MCHIFPrnservice outlets in Ihe town.rnOut of the total 596female college students 229(38.4%} of them ever had sexual intercourse wilhrnmean age 18.24 at their first intercourse and 83.7% had ever used one of the modernrncontraceptive methods. Out of 21 2 (35.6%) of the whole respondents who had ever heard aboutrnEC, 60.8% knew at least one correct method of EC while only 31.6% correctly idenlified 72rnhours as the time limit for the method use. The summmy indexfor knowledge about EC disclosedrnthat only 17.0% had good knowledge of EC whereas 65.6% had favorable al/i/ude lowards EC.rnThe FGDs among male students revealed Ihat male studenls also lack a specific knowledge ofrnEC. The key informmlls' inlerview among health care providers also ascerlained lack ofrnadequate knowledge and experience on EC regimens.rnThere is lack of adequate knowledge of EC among both female and male students and the servicernproviders. Therefore, there is a need to address College students by expanding information andrneducation about EC methods and to build providers capacity through trainings.