A professor at the centre of a high-profile plagiarism row has been placed under investigation, the University of Cambridge has said..A statement from the university said the inquiry into Professor Jason Arday, a professor of sociology of education who became its youngest black professor in 2023, has begun “following new information”..The university – which consistently ranks at the top of higher education league tables – said the inquiry would examine his “academic qualifications and honorary appointments”..It comes after a series of media reports, including a story in the Daily Telegraph, alleging he plagiarised his PhD thesis and other research..In an interview with the Times, he denied the claims and said: “I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made. I hold myself accountable and other people should hold me accountable..”We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist is totally unacceptable.”.In a statement released on Wednesday, the university said: “The University of Cambridge has begun an investigation following new information about Professor Arday’s academic qualifications and honorary appointments. In order to ensure a fair process, we will not comment further until this has concluded..”Separately, there remains a number of ongoing complaints regarding academic misconduct, which are being handled in line with our misconduct in research policy. This is consistent with our previous statement on the matter..”While we are fully aware of the public commentary and concerns around this matter, it remains vital that any process is thorough and adheres to both university policies and employment law..”We also fully recognise that there is a person at the centre of this situation and we continue to provide support to him..”We are aware that Jesus College, Cambridge, will be taking their own steps in relation to so
It’s a story so remarkable that it beggars belief: a boy who couldn’t read or write until he was a teenager climbed the ranks to become the youngest black professor at one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
Even more extraordinary is that along the way Professor James Arday, 41, from the University of Cambridge, overcame severe autism, crippling dyslexia and a mini-stroke that wiped his memory.
Professor Jason Arday has now resigned from his position at the University of Cambridge Credit: Graeme Robertson..
He appeared on shows like This Morning to tell his emotional story Credit: Shutterstock
As well as being an academic at the top of his field he collected awards, appeared on endless TV shows and travelled the world on the public speaker circuit sharing his emotional journey.
But the working class academic who grew up on a South London council estate had loftier ambitions and once described himself as his community’s “next great hope.”
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Now though, it has all come tumbling down.
Last night he resigned from his position at the University of Cambridge just hours after they announced an inquiry into his “academic qualifications and honorary appointment”
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He wrote online that he wanted to “reclaim some peace” after an “unrelenting level of public scrutiny.”
Despite being made a professor at a world top ten institution three years ago, and completing his PhD a decade ago, up until recently his achievements had not been scrutinised.
The keen runner carried the Olympic flame Credit: PA:Press Association
Professor Arday’s background has come into question Credit: SWNS
However when it was revealed last week that he may have copied large sections of academic work from others – suspicions began to grow surrounding some of his other outlandish career claims.
The academic first made headlines back in 2010 when he claimed that he had run 30 marathons in 35 days, to raise money for a homeless charity.
During the 21st race, he suffered an epileptic fit and fell to the ground, fracturing his fibula, yet nonetheless managed to complete another nine marathons with a broken leg.
‘My right leg ballooned to twice its size,’ he said. ‘To this day, I don’t really know how I did it.’
Arday explained the feat to tennis champion Andy Murray who told journalists it was “pretty cool to meet someone like that.”
His running didn’t stop with marathons as he also claimed to have run 300 miles in three days in 2013, and 600 mile challenges, which would be impressive even for a professional ultra-marathon runner.
Damian Hall, who has represented Great Britain at ultra-running, told reporters this week: “The 600 miles in six days is, again, not impossible, but would be remarkable, akin to the very best record-breaking ultra-runners. It seems odd that there appears to be no evidence of that.”
Professor Jason Arday appeared on BBC flagship today programme Credit: BBC
He was set to release a book Great and Unfortunate Things Credit: Supplied
The series of running events were part of an astonishing charity fundraising effort.
Arday’s application for a Pride Of Britain award said that ‘in total, he has raised more than £5million for 80 charities over an 18-year period’. And in 2023 he claimed that he’d raised ‘£5.5 million and counting’.
However, when questioned he has since confessed he didn’t actually raise that much money, and it was instead a group effort.
His exaggerated charitable endeavors don’t end there either.
Greenbelt Festival website, states that he “has also undertaken and completed relief work in South America and West Africa with WaterAid installing water points, which provide drinkable and clean water”.
However WaterAid have a policy of never sending volunteers abroad and have no record of him.
Arday’s mysterious sporting prowess doesn’t just involve running, either.
He has also claimed to be an elite football player, telling one interviewer: “As a child, I was fortunate to play football well, so I was in the academy system and then played semi-professionally.”
It’s unclear which academy he represented, but his senior career seems to have involved a stint as goalie for Lewisham Borough in the Southern Counties East Division One, which is the tenth tier of English football, at the bottom of the non-league pyramid.
Bizarrely in a blog post for the University of Bath he also claimed to have played professional snooker, before it was updated to say he was “really good” but “not good enough to be professional”.
Questions have also been raised about this colourful anecdotes and claims during interviews.
He told the University of Bath’s Race Equality Taskforce: “I was part of a programme, actually, which – it doesn’t really exist any more – but it was called Seven Up at the time.
“And Seven Up is basically when they follow you over the duration of your life, so they follow you at [ages] 7, 14, 21. I was pulled out of the project when I was 14.”
The inaugural episode was broadcast in 1964, meaning all participants were born in either 1956 or 1967. He was not born until 1985.
Arday denies lying, however. He insists that he was instead talking about a “local community and parent-led initiative” with a completely different name.
A spokesman said: “The reference to Seven Up was used informally as a shorthand illustration of the concept. It was not intended as a literal comparison and should be understood in the context in which it was made.
“This was a local community and parent-led initiative developed around the Ubuntu principle (African philosophy) that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.
“The reference to Seven Up was used informally as a shorthand illustration of the concept.”
But inconsistencies in Professor Arday’s back story do not end there.
Alongside his high profile role at the University of Cambridge he holds an array of visiting positions including visiting professorships at Glasgow University and Ohio State University in the US where he allegedly works in the ‘Office of diversity and inclusion’.
However there is a problem.
Glasgow insists that Arday “was never a visiting professor”, while Ohio State University says it “has no record of an employee of that name’ adding that ‘visiting professors appear in our employment records.”
Other incidents have also come under the microscope.
At the weekend he revealed that he was once sent a pig’s head in the post.
He told The Guardian that police had investigated the incident and found a butcher’s shop that had sold a ‘whole hog’ on the morning of the alleged incident.
Since then the Metropolitan Police has said that his claims were “categorically untrue” and no such investigation took place and said it could find no record that officers had visited any butcher.
The full extent of Arday’s tales is only just coming to light but it’s not the first time journalists have tried to get answers.
Last year Jack Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education who had emailed questions to Cambridge regarding allegations of plagiarism in Arday’s academic work, found himself being reported to the police for “harassment.”
Prof Arday hired the law firm Carter-Ruck, which suggested in a letter to THE that its “apparent attack” on him “may be… racially motivated”.
The Metropolitan force spent four months investigating before deciding in February to close the case.
So with questions over his academic background, his wild sporting achievements and strange anecdotes; perhaps the truest quote from Arday comes from an interview he gave to The Guardian in 2023 when he said that his friends often tell him: “I don’t see myself the way other people see me.”
A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge said: “The University of Cambridge has begun an investigation following new information about Professor Arday’s academic qualifications and honorary appointments. In order to ensure a fair process, we will not comment further until this has concluded.
Separately, there remain a number of ongoing complaints regarding academic misconduct, “which are being handled in line with our Misconduct in Research policy. This is consistent with our previous statement on the matter.
“While we are fully aware of the public commentary and concerns around this matter, it remains vital that any process is thorough and adheres to both University policies and employment law.”
Professor Arday has been contacted for comment.
