Greta Thunberg meets Malala Yousafzai at Oxford University

Malala Yousafzai admitted Greta Thunberg is ‘the only friend’ she’d skip school for when the two met at Oxford University today.

The climate activist, 17, travelled to Lady Margaret Hall to join the human rights campaigner, 22, who is studying for her bachelor’s degree at the prestigious university, on Tuesday.

A picture posted to Malala’s Instagram page – which has received more than 150,000 likes – shows the two smiling at the camera as they sit on a bench together.

The Nobel Prize winner captioned the image ‘Thank you, @gretathunberg’ with a heart emoji.

It remains unknown what the pair discussed, but their meeting followed a talk Greta gave to students about ‘science, voting, the limits of protest, divestment, real zero v net zero, and much more’.

The college’s master, Alan Rusbridger, posted a photo of the teenager on his own social media accounts, saying he was honoured to host her and grateful that she found time to give a talk.

Both young women shot to fame after standing up for major global issues.

Greta – whose climate change campaigning has received global recognition – is expected to address crowds at the Youth Strike 4 Climate Demonstration on Friday.

One of the organisers of the event, Milly Sibson, 17, said ‘everyone is so excited about the thought of hearing her talk’.

She added: ‘I would love the chance to meet her because she is the founder of this movement and she is so important to it – she is an idol even though she is younger than me.

‘We really hope loads of people join us to welcome her to Bristol.’

Malala became a feminist symbol after she was shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan for campaigning for girls to be allowed to go to school.

After co-founding non-profit organisation the Malala Fund, writing an international bestseller book named I Am Malala and becoming the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, she is currently studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford.