Objective   To examine the situation and influencing factors of acquirements of health education on public health emergency among college students in Shandong province and to provide references for developing education programs relevant to public health emergency among the students.

  Methods  Using stratified random sampling, we recruited 8 000 students in 6 universities in Shandong province and conducted an online anonymous questionnaire survey during April – May 2020.

  Results  Among the 7 719 students with valid responses, 4378 (56.7%) reported that there were on-campus education programs on infectious disease prevention and control; 4219 (54.7%) and 3238 (41.9%) reported that there were on-campus education programs on sports safety and on prevention/first aid of accidental injury. In terms of college courses on health education, 3 090 (40.0%) and 3 889 (50.4%) of the students considered that the number of enrolment registration and class hour were not large enough; inflexible teaching, informal examination, and lectures′ professional deficit were reported by 3 543 (45.9%), 2 264 (29.3%), and 2345 (30.4%) of the students, respectively. Of the students, 4 602 (59.7%) and 4 995 (64.7%) reported being aware of and having received health education on public health emergency. The results of unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the girl students and the students entering colleges from regions other than in Shandong province were less likely to receive the education on public health emergency; while, the students with following characteristics were more likely to receive the education: being a sophomore, with a rural registered permanent residence, with health education courses in college, considering lectures with adequate professional quality for health education, being aware of public health emergency events, and being aware of college authorities′ general or great concerns on health education.

  Conclusion  Among college students in Shandong province, the acquirement of health education on public health emergency is at a relatively low level and mainly influenced by students′ gender, schooling grade, type of household registration, living region before college entrance, awareness on public health emergency events, and consideration on professional quality of health education lectures and colleges′ health education courses and concerns on health education.