Brash men's magazine FHM has upset Students at Oxford Brookes University with a "sarcastic" article on suicide.

The students' union has withdrawn the free FHM Student Guide from its snack bars and lounge areas after receiving complaints.

The magazine claims to help students make the most of their years at university.

But it has outraged Brookes Students' Union with its hints on how to cheat at exams and the feature on suicide. There is a panel on how to write a baffling suicide note, a review of some of the ways to commit suicide giving each one marks out of ten, and there is advice on preventing suicide from Alex Coren, of Oxford University's counselling service.

Pete Tommer, student union deputy president and equal opportunities officer, said the article tried to make light of a distressing issue.

He said the union's executive officers felt the article was distasteful and irresponsible. He said: "As soon as we were made aware that students had found the magazine offensive we removed it from circulation. We urge other student unions to do the same."

Music and leisure student Pete Trewin, 20, said: "I think that it glamorises suicide. There is a piece in there about students who have committed suicide which can be upsetting for their families."

English and European studies student Cato Marks, 25, said: "It is aimed at freshers and they are at a vulnerable time. If they are away from home for the first time they are lonely. I think it is bad." Fresher Katy Higgins, 18, studying geography and marketing, said: "There are people who are feeling homesick and some people have been upset by this. It is not what you want to see when you come to university, They are making light of it and that is not very funny."

Sini Shah, the union's communications and multimedia representative, said: "We were fortunate to get the magazine out of circulation before many people had read it.

"We have mechanisms for people who are depressed. We would rather people get help than think suicide is the way out." Anneliese Dodds, president of Oxford University Student Union, said she had not received any complaints about the magazine.

Editor of FHM, Anthony Noguera, said: "We have not had any other complaints about this. I think it is quite odd that we have a number of students who are supposed to be the most intelligent strata in society who don't understand that this piece was written in a sarcastic tone. "It is to show how stupid suicide is. The people who have got upset by this have probably never read FHM. We included an interview with the deputy head of the counselling service at Oxford University giving advice on what pushes students over the edge."

Story date: Thursday 21 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.