Egypt suffers from a continuing shortage of blood supply. University students constitute a significant portion of healthy potential blood donors. Due to lack of evidence, we investigated the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of Minia University students with regard to blood donation.

We conducted a cross-sectional study which included 576 randomly selected students at Minia University, Egypt aged 20–25 years. A structured questionnaire assessed the KAP, with its related factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the odds ratios for students’ KAP across different levels of sociodemographic characteristics.

While 65% of the students had positive attitude towards blood donation, 53% of the students had insufficient knowledge about blood donation, and only 35% of them had donated blood before. Age and residence were not significantly associated with KAP, while donors have a multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI) = 0.37 (0.26–0.54) for being female students versus being males. Studying public health was associated with knowledge and attitude, but not with practice of blood donation. A 1-point increment in knowledge score was associated with significantly 18 and 11% higher odds for having positive attitude and for being a donor respectively. However, the increased likelihood of donating created by having a positive attitude was insignificant.

There was a gap between attitude, on one hand, and knowledge and practice, on the other hand, of Egyptian university students with regard to blood donation. Collaborations between Ministries of Health and Education to facilitate and encourage blood donation practice for students at their place of study are required.