Half the UK’s universities have pledged to sell their shares in oil and gas stocks following years of student activism involving protests, hunger strikes and petitions.

According to grassroots student activism group People & Planet, some 78 of the UK’s 154 public universities have now committed to at least partially divest from fossil fuels. Institutions taking the pledge include UCL, York, Liverpool and Exeter, which all said they would ditch oil and gas stocks.

Chris Saltmarsh, co-director for climate change campaigns at People & Planet, said excluding fossil fuels from university endowments was now a “m...