To talk about sexuality is to talk about the human species, from our birth to our disappearance. Sexuality influences our whole life, with sex at its base, a primary distinction that provides the human species with a means of reproduction, but which influences beyond the limit of sexual activity itself (De Pablo, 2005). For the World Health Organisation (WHO), human sexuality is defined as a central aspect of the human being, present throughout his or her life. It encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy, reproduction and sexual orientation (OMS, 2006). It is lived and expressed through thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, roles and interpersonal relationships. It is also influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors.

Sexuality is currently seen as something vital in the individual and which must be accepted and integrated into their total personality, which presupposes an objective knowledge of the facts and an adequate management of the sexual potential inherent to the person. In this sense, it is accepted that knowledge learned through a continuous educational process for health can help to strengthen personality and self-esteem, to achieve identity and to facilitate the adoption of positive attitudes towards affectivity, relationships with others, sexuality, etc., as well as the development of a positive attitude towards individual health and well-being, etc. (Cabra, Camps and Díaz, 2011). For this reason, WHO (2006) urges countries to include sex education in their educational systems.

Sex education should be a basic part of the cross-curricular training of students in early childhood, primary and secondary education, and although current educational plans include it in their curriculum transversally, sexuality continues to be a taboo subject, which makes it difficult to work on it correctly. On the other hand, sexual education has been generally conceptualised around genitality and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, and this information is insufficient.

The present research aims to identify the way in which the university population of Huelva has accessed sex education, the knowledge and some attitudes related to sexual health and sexual relations, and the needs of students in this area. To this end, a sample of 310 students from the University of Huelva, aged between 18 and 50 years old, was recruited.

Adolescence marks the beginning of sexual activity (Alfaro, Vázquez, Fierro, Muñoz, Rodríguez, & González, 2015), and in line with other studies (Generalitat Valenciana, 2000), we also note that the beginning of sex education is between the ages of 11 and 15 years. It is still assumed that young people have a good sex education, but studies such as those by Cabrera and Guerra (2014) and Preinfalk (2014), show that the students themselves think that this training is not good. With the different educational reforms, sex education has had different considerations, but none of them has been sufficient and students think that the sex education received in the school environment is deficient.

The research methodology used in this study was quantitative and the sample consisted of 310 students from the University of Huelva, 233 women (75.2%) and 77 men (24.8%). The overall objective we set was: To identify, describe and analyse the knowledge, behaviours and attitudes towards sexuality and sex education of students at the University of Huelva. Information was collected by means of a confidential, anonymous and voluntary questionnaire. The survey was drawn up in academic year 2019/20 from differentiated blocks of two instruments: - Questionnaire on sexuality (Generalitat Valenciana, 2000): general information block on sexuality and two questions from the block on contraceptives. - Sexuality and sex education questionnaire (Preinfalk, 2014): sex education and sexuality knowledge block. For data gathering, a selection was first made randomly from the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Sports Sciences of the University of Huelva, and other degrees belonging to other faculties such as Nursing and Social Work. Once the degree courses were selected, the teachers involved in the teaching of these subjects were contacted and the schedules for administration of the questionnaire were agreed. The data analysis techniques used were quantitative, to extract the information from the questionnaires by applying descriptive statistics and correlation techniques using the SPSS statistical package.

The majority of participants started receiving information about sexuality between 11 and 15 years of age (58.1%) or over 15 years of age (22.4%). Some 67.4% received sex education in high school, but only 20.3% received such training in the tutoring hour. Moreover, a minimal portion (7.1%) participated in the Forma Joven programme. Considering that 17.4% stated that there were extracurricular workshops on sex education, 15% of the interviewee stated that they had taken part in them. In general, the participants considered that the training received was fair (41.3%), with only 17.1% thinking that it was good or very good, and 30.6% that it was bad or very bad. As for university training, most curricula do not include courses on sexuality (59.4%), or respondents did not know about it (29.5%). Only 11% stated that the degree included a subject on this topic, which after reviewing the teaching guides of the degrees surveyed, coincides with the subject of “Sexuality and Health” and, although only 31% claimed to have participated in a workshop or conference on sex education at the University of Huelva, 84.5% said that universities are a suitable place to receive sex education, and 84.9% thought that the University of Huelva in particular can be a good place to receive sex education. Just over half of the participants (55.8%) considered that they had an average level of information on sexuality and the main sources of sexual information received were friends (71.3%), teachers (68.4%) and websites/Internet (52.8%); sources of information on contraceptives were friends (53.9%), teachers (49.7%) and mothers (47.7%), and the most useful followed a similar line (49.4% friends, 34.3% websites/Internet), but adding partners, with 31%. The preferred means of obtaining information were health professionals (71.9%), friends (37.4%) and web pages/Internet (37.4%).

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