The insulting feature on UniLad said the fact that only 15 per cent of rapes are reported was "good odds".

The article ended with the words: "UniLad does not condone rape without saying 'surprise'."

The site, run by Plymouth University web design student Jamie Street and editor-in-chief Alex Partridge, also sold merchandise bearing the slogan "keep calm – it won't take long", gave advice on "how to pull a fresher" and featured other material too offensive to publish.

The page — which claims to have 8,000 daily visits and 70,000 Facebook fans — has been suspended while the university is investigating.

An apology also appeared online today, admitting: "We took things too far."

A statement read: "We would like to make a public apology as it appears that some of the content previously published on this site has caused some distress.

"We took things too far. It will not happen again. We are certainly going to be cleaning up our act."

Estelle Hart, national women's officer with the National Union of Students, called for the website to be shut down for its misogyny.

She said: "Words cannot describe my anger at seeing this website.

"These pathetic attempts at humour feed into a view in society that women are to blame for the violence committed against them.

"The casual trivialisation of rape suggests it is something other than a despicable violent crime. We cannot let them get away with such degrading attitudes towards women."

A Plymouth University spokesman said: "We are appalled to learn of the offensive content of this website and we are further dismayed to learn of the involvement of one of our students."