Campaigners protested outside the Student Services Centre on Wednesday (25/02) to demand that the Careers Service cut ties with fossil fuel, mining, and arms companies.

Around 20 demonstrators gathered outside the building’s entrance, holding several signs and two large banners that read “Fossil Free Careers” and “No Future in Fossil Fuels”.

The rally was organised by Cambridge Climate Justice (CCJ), in response to a meeting inside the Student Services Centre about whether to form an “ethical careers policy” working group.

CCJ said that the meeting resulted in a “general consensus” to establish a working group, but added: “There will be more meetings with the Careers Service to make sure this happens.”

The first speaker at the protest, a CCJ representative, described their experiences of negotiating with the University: “We were told that the University would love to do more on sustainability, but that most Cambridge students are simply not interested enough in ethical careers. We are here today to show the Careers Service that we do care.”

Several other students spoke at the rally, including a representative from Cambridge University Amnesty International, and several candidates from the recent Students’ Union election. These included undergraduate presidential candidate Sophia Choudhury, postgraduate presidential candidate Sonia Fereidooni, and newly-elected vice-president for education and widening participation Sarah Misraoui.

Choudhury described feeling disoriented by opposing messaging from the Careers Service and her education: “When I go to lectures, I’m taught about companies whose mining activities, whose fossil fuel involvement and whose weapons and arm manufacturing directly destroy communities.

“Then those same companies [send emails saying] they’re hiring, there’s an internship, come to the Careers Service. My education is telling me one thing and the Careers Service is telling me another.”

Speakers mentioned several fossil fuel, mining, and arms companies they feel should be cut off entirely and expressly discouraged by the Careers Service, including Palantir, BP, and ExxonMobil.

A CCJ representative told the crowd: “Students, especially with a STEM background, are persuaded to take on jobs in these companies’ sustainability departments because they are told they can improve these systems from within, just for them to be transferred to other departments, where they suddenly have to work in the horrific structures that they wanted to change.”

Several students also referenced the humanitarian situation in Gaza when explaining why the Careers Service should end partnerships with arms companies. Choudhury told the demonstrators: “Thousands of Palestinians are literally wiped out of existence, literally evaporated from arms and displaced from their ancestral homes, Sudanis as well, in the name of mining and extractivism. Those same companies complicit in these acts are then invited, celebrated, [and] given access to students.”

The CCJ rally was not the only student protest this week. Last Sunday evening (22/02), the Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists (ORCA) vandalised against the three Hilton Hotels in Cambridge: City Centre, The Graduate, and The Fellows House.

In protest against the hotel chain’s stance on American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, activists graffitied the slogans “ICE operates here,” “Stop ICE,” and “Boycott Hilton” on the buildings.

ORCA posted the photos on Instagram – in collaboration with Cambridge for Palestine, and Cambridge Artists for Palestine – along with the caption: “In January 2026, Hilton Hotels dropped a franchised Minneapolis hotel for refusing to host ICE agents, issuing an apology statement directed to the US government saying their hotels are a ‘welcoming space for all’.

“As a result, we join widespread calls to boycott Hilton in protest of its blatant complicity with the US government’s anti-migrant, racist agenda.”

The post also referenced the expulsion of immigrants to the Terrorism Confinement Centre, an El Salvador prison known as CECOT, the deaths of people while in ICE custody, and the killing of protesters by federal agents, including Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.

The University of Cambridge and Hilton Hotels were contacted for comment.