Jason Arday plagiarism row: What was the Cambridge professor accused of before his sudden death?

Jason Arday, Cambridge's youngest Black professor, has died at 41 weeks after resigning amid a plagiarism controversy.

Jason Arday, the former Cambridge University scholar whose meteoric rise was followed by a swift fall in recent weeks, has died at the age of 41, his family confirmed on Friday.

Who was Jason Arday?

Jason Arday, who became Cambridge's youngest Black professor in 2023, has died at the age of 41. (Unsplash)

Arday grew up in a working-class part of South London, the child of Ghanaian immigrants. He was identified early on as having learning difficulties and wrote in his memoir that he could not speak until age 11 and could not read until age 18, as per The New York Times.

He was diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay at age three.

Arday built an impressive academic career focused on race and education, with stints at Roehampton, Glasgow and Durham universities before becoming Cambridge's youngest Black professor in 2023, taking up an established chair of education at Jesus College.

As per The Guardian, a controversy began last month after a blog post accused Arday of plagiarizing parts of his dissertation and exaggerating parts of his personal story. The post was written by Nathan Cofnas, who describes himself as a “race realist” and was sacked by Cambridge’s Emmanuel College in 2024. The Telegraph reported that an analysis found more than 100 passages in Arday’s PhD were similar to another thesis by Brunel University student Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, published six years earlier.

Separately, critics questioned some of Arday’s claims about his charity work and endurance runs. He said he had raised 5 million pounds for charity and had run 600 miles in six days. According to The Guardian, two universities that had awarded him honorary degrees later changed their websites about these claims. One changed the claim from “six days” to “12 days.”

Arday also said he had faced years of racist abuse and threats, including receiving a bullet in the post and a severed pig’s head at his family home. However, local butchers and the Metropolitan Police did not confirm parts of his account. The police said the details Arday gave were “categorically” incorrect and that no investigation had taken place.

Cambridge University initially defended Arday and called the plagiarism allegations a “vile smear campaign.” However, the university later said it would conduct an independent investigation into his hiring.

Arday resigned from Cambridge last week, shortly before his memoir was due to be published.

His death

According to NYT, London's Metropolitan Police said an ambulance was called on Friday afternoon to a South London residence connected to Arday after a man was found unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene, though police did not confirm his identity. The death was being "treated as unexpected" but was not believed to be suspicious, police said.

Arday's family said in a statement, "Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse" since he joined Cambridge, adding, "The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone." They also said, “We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”