Introduction: Efforts to reduce the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS are very much related tornchanging high-risk sexual behaviors and environments facilitating high risk sexual behaviors.rnThis can be done successfully if these efforts are supported by relevant studies that aimed atrnanalysis of sexual behaviors among the potentially risk groups.rnObjective: To assess and compare High Risk Sexual behaviour among male and femalernuniversity studentsrnMethods: A comparative cross-sectional study (both quantitative and qualitative methods) werernconducted from April 20 to 30, 2010 to assess the risky sexual behavior among male and femalernuniversity students in Axum town. A total of 640students, 320 males and 320 females werernparticipated. A structured, pre-tested, and self-administrated questionnaire and FGD were usedrnfor quantitative and qualitative data collection respectively.rnResults: In multivariate analysis respondentsâ€™ age , drinking alcohol, chat chewing and cigaretternsmoking were statistically significant with high risk sexual behavior. The mean age of the studyrnsubjects was 20.65 +1.53. 234 (36.6%) of the study subjects had ever had sexual intercourse, andrn107(33.4%). Among the sexually active students 160 (68.4%) had only one lifetime partner, 59rn(25.2%) had 2-5 partners and 15 (6.4%) had more than 5 lifetime partners. The proportion ofrnmales reported having had more than five lifetime partners was higher than females 10(7.9%)rnand 5(4.7%) respectively. Males were more knowledgeable and had positive attitude thanrnfemales. Fifty two (8.1 %) of the students claimed that their chance of contracting HIV/AIDSrnwas high while 514 (80.3%) said there was no chance at all. Seventy four (11.6%) did not knowrntheir risk status.rnConclusion: Age, drinking alcohol, cigarette smoking and chat chewing showed a statisticallyrnsignificant association with high risk sexual behavior, males were more knowledgeable and havernpositive attitude than females, in general the students had low risk perception and males hadrnhigher risk perception than females