In order to verify the effect of the water safety preliminary education model, which bases the teaching objective on "w ater safety for swimming and self rescue for survival", on the water safety knowledge, skill, attitude and behavior of university students, the authors selected 60 university students as the testees, and carried out experimental study by adopting repeated measurement experiment design. The results showed the followings: there was no significant difference between the experiment class before experiment and the control class in terms of various dimensions such as water safety knowledge, skill, attitude and behavior; various dimensions of the experiment class after experiment were significantly higher than those of the control class; delayed(3 months after water safety education) measurement results indicated that various dimensions of the experiment class after experiment were still significantly higher than those of the control class. The results indicated the followings: the water safety preliminary education model can effectively promote university students’ water safety knowledge, enhance their water safety skill, improve their water safety attitude, and reduce their water risky behavior; the effect of the water safety preliminary education model is sustainable to a certain extent.