Even though HIV/AIDS is the worst health crisis in recorded history in the world, it has clearly moved beyond being
primarily a health issue, to developmental crisis. More than 83% of all new infections in many African countries are
among young and productive people in which females are outnumbering males. Higher learning institutions such as
the Ethiopian Civil Service College (ECSC), as knowledge generation sources, and with perceived skills contributing to
the generation of business leaders, need to seriously address HIV/AIDS as a cross-cutting issue in their mandate.
There is lack of adequate documentation on HIV/AIDS related knowledge and behaviors among the university
community. The study sought to assess HIV/AIDS related knowledge, attitude and behaviors of ECSC community,
and contribute to the literature in the field. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between January-June 2011by
using mixed methods where structured questionnaire was administered for 250 systematically selected respondents
while focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted and purposively selected key informants were interviewed. Out
of 250 respondents, 238 (with 95% response rate) returned the questionnaire. Eight key informants and
observations were used for triangulating data. The study found that the majority of (students and staff) respondents
know about HIV&AIDS; and that they were no correlation between being postgraduate and undergraduate student;
being married or single. It was found that all respondents (married or unmarried, those who use or do not use
condoms) never perceive that they are at risk for HIV. Unsafe sex, multiple concurrent sexual partnerships were
found among all religious groups, married staff and students. However, compared to female respondents, males
were found more exposed to unsafe sex. Qualitative data supports this finding. Significant number of respondents
was willing to take and few actually took HIV counseling and testing to know their status. There were positive
changes on awareness and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, yet comprehensive knowledge is lacking, even those who
have knowledge do not practically apply it in using HIV prevention services like consistent condom use. There is a
need for improved strategies at promoting comprehensive knowledge and behavioral change interventions of the
college, which could also be scaled up to other institutions.