**1. Introduction**

A university living setting provides a unique opportunity for students who enter this environment for the first time. Yet, living in a new environment is associated with stress and changes of lifestyle [1]. At the university level, students adjust to a certain level of being an adult and experiencing freedom. These students create a social and cultural environment by drinking alcohol to obtain a positive outcome (e.g. enhancement, coping) or to avoid a negative outcome (like peer rejection) [2]. This environment could further create unhealthy lifestyles such that students are more involved in risky behaviour and serious drinking problems than their peers

who are not enrolled in the University [2–4] . Unhealthy behaviour such as tobacco product use, marijuana use, injuries and interpersonal problems are the vital risk factors associated with excessive alcohol consumption. Besides, alcohol use among university students has been associated with poor academic performance, personal injuries, loss of memory, temporary illness (such as nausea, vomiting, and hangover), unprotected sexual activity, acquaintance rape, sexual violence and other problems like suicide,, impaired driving skills,, vandalism or fights [5].

The high percentage of alcohol use and abuse in the university environment by students is viewed as representing the prime drinking years for individuals [6]. For example, Young and De Klerk. [7] reported that more than 50% of Rhodes University student respondents who participated in their study were dependent on alcohol. The prevalent of alcohol use in a university in the South-East of Nigeria was reported to be 78.4% [8].

The prevalence of alcohol use by university students in South Africa has been found to range from 20% to 80% in 2009 by Peltzer & Ramlagan [9]. The prevalence of alcohol drinking at the University of Venda, South Africa was reported to be 65% of the current drinkers [10]. In South Africa, substance rehabilitation centers found alcohol as the primary substance abuse in eight out of the nine provinces [9]. Excessive alcohol consumption during University year's impacts negatively on student lifestyles even on post-University level, leading to accidents, health problems, and personal problems [11].

Alcohol drinking may be responsive to internal rewards such as the manipulation of management of one's own internal emotional state and external reward such as social acceptance [2]. Various factors affect the alcohol drinking patterns of students in the university environment. Some university student prefer beer and other drugs for economic reasons, Regardless of the various alcoholic beverages like cider, wine, spirits, champagne, whisky, gin or brandy [12]. Gender differences in alcohol use was reported among university students in the USA with a significantly high number of males compared to females drinking alcohol [13]. Furthermore, staying on-campus has been linked with excessive alcohol drinking than staying off-campus [14]. Little is known about the prevalence of alcohol use and associated risk factors among the University of Limpopo. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of alcohol use and associated risk factors among University of Limpopo students aged 17 to 43 years.
