Relevance. Despite the national policy aimed at reducing alcohol abuse and preventing alcoholism, young people continue to show interest and actively engage in alcohol consumption. Aim: to study the prevalence of alcohol consumption and risk factors associated with alcohol consumption among university students. Material and methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire (Google Forms). The questionnaire was conducted from 05.07.2025 to 06.06.2025, data were received from 8456 survey participants from among university students, the final sample size was 8226 questionnaires. The questionnaire consisted of two parts, the first part included the following questions: age, gender, place of study, year of study, tobacco use, marital status, employment, place of residence, income (family), physical activity, having a close friend who does not drink alcohol, who drinks alcohol, parents' alcohol consumption, motives for drinking alcohol, sources of information about the impact of alcohol on health, the second part of the questionnaire included questions to assess alcohol consumption RUS-AUDIT. Results. The prevalence of alcohol consumption among students of higher educational institutions was 42.5%, among men less than among women (40.0% vs. 44.3%). Of the students who drink alcoholic beverages, according to the results of testing using the RUS-AUDIT test, the majority are classified as a group with a low risk of developing problems associated with alcohol use, 27.4% of students are classified as risky alcohol use, alcohol dependence was established among 289 (8.3%) students. The most significant factors studied that were associated with alcohol consumption were age (OR=1,18; 95% CI 1,15; 1,2), female gender (OR=1.19; 95% CI 1.09; 1.30), tobacco use (OR=7.0; 95% CI 6.3; 7.8), being married, including civil, or divorced (for men OR=1.45; 95% CI 1.11; 1.9; for women OR=1.36; 95% CI 1.12; 1.92), full-time (OR=1.97; 95% CI 1.67; 2.31) and part-time (OR=1.49; 95% CI 1.33; 1.68) employment, and living in dormitory, own or rented housing (OR=1.57; 95% CI 1.43; 1.72), high (OR=1.19; 95% CI 1.02; 1.38) or very low (OR=1.35; 95% CI 1.07; 1.77) income, absence of a close friend who does not drink alcohol at all (OR=1.18; 95% CI 1.15; 1.2), presence of a close friend who drinks a lot of alcohol (OR=3.1; 95% CI 2.8; 3.4), alcohol consumption by parents (OR=3.0; 95% CI 2.7; 3.3). The motives for drinking alcohol among students are the desire for entertainment and mood improvement, drinking alcohol with friends, for company, to forget about troubles, out of curiosity, to kill boredom and to gain courage. In the Republic of Ingushetia, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Tambov Region there are significantly more students who do not drink alcohol, in the Zabaikalsky Krai, Vologda and Moscow Regions there are more students who drink alcohol, in the Kaluga and Tyumen Regions the differences are not significant. Conclusions. Taking into account the data obtained in this study, it is possible to develop effective preventive measures to reduce alcohol abuse among students of higher education institutions.