Background: Sexual coercion refers to a range of experiences that compel a person to havernsex against her or his will, and it is a public health problem of concern throughout the world.rnThis is not only because of physical injury that may result but also because of potentiallyrnharmful health behaviours that may be triggered in response to violence. The severity of thernproblem and inadequacy of the studies in this area has prompted the undertaking of this study.rnObjective: The aim of this study was to determine the magnitude and factors associated withrnsexual coercion among female students of Ambo University in 2012.rnMethods: A cross-sectional institution based study was conducted among female students ofrnAmbo University from January, 2012 using the World Health Organization (WHO) multicountryrnself-administered standard questionnaire with minor modifications. Then 597 studyrnparticipants were selected by simple random sampling method from selected departments usingrnstudentsâ€™ registration number. Data were entered using EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed usingrnSPSS version16.0 statistical software packages. Thematic analysis was used for focus grouprndiscussions (FGDs).rnResults: About 77 (13%) of the female students were raped at least once in lifetime and 177rn(30%) experienced an attempted rape in their lifetime. Most of the study participants 465rn(78.8%) reported that they experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. Among the victimsrnof completed lifetime rape, 43 (55.4%) encountered unusual vaginal discharge, 29 (37.7%) hadrnexperienced unwanted pregnancy, 26 (33.8%) had abortion, 18 (23.4%) reported injury aroundrnthe genitalia and 17 (22.1%) experienced swelling around the genitalia. Psychologicalrnoutcomes like unhappiness, thinking that worthless person, suicidal ideation and suicidalrnattempt were reported by 70.1%, 64.9%, 22.1% and 2.6% of the rape victims, respectively. Thernodds of experiencing lifetime rape was higher among participants of 3rd year or morern(AOR=2.97, 95%CI: 1.02, 8.62), 4th year (AOR=4.85, 95%, 1.38, 16.99), aged 24 years orrnmore (AOR=3.92, 95%CI: 1.13, 13.55), female students who reported drinking alcoholrn(AOR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.63, 6.50), who had boyfriends (AOR=2.35, 95%CI: 1.71, 4.90), whornhad more than one sexual partner (AOR=2.64,955CI: 1.03, 6.77) and participants with historyrnof divorced families (AOR=6.53, 95%CI: 1.38, 30.80).rnConclusion: This study shows that sexual coercion is common and serious problem amongrnuniversity female students in the study area. Therefore, it is recommended that sexual coercionrnneeds due attention and remedial action by policy makers, university officials, parents,rnstudents, non-governmental organizations and other concerned bodies to promote a harassmentrnfree educational environment for female students.