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Jason Arday, ex-Cambridge professor at centre of plagiarism row, found dead

Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row, has been found dead.

Emergency services said a man was found "unresponsive" at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.

Arday resigned as a Cambridge professor of sociology of education last week after allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements. He had denied the claims.

Arday's family said in a statement that they were "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son".

They added: "The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone."

Earlier on Friday, police officers were called to an address in Battersea by the London Ambulance Service.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious."

Cambridge University vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice said: "We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news."

"Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday's family and friends at this incredibly difficult time," she said.

Tributes paid to Jason Arday after ex-Cambridge professor found dead

Tributes have been paid to Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor, after he was found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.

In a statement issued by his publisher Simon & Schuster UK, Prof Arday's family said they were "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son".

They said a "campaign of misinformation" had been too much for him.

Arday, 41, resigned as a Cambridge professor of sociology of education last week after allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements. He had denied the claims.

The University of Cambridge vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice led the tributes, saying the faculty was "desperately saddened" to learn of his death.

"Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday's family and friends at this incredibly difficult time."

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was "deeply shocked and saddened" to hear about the death and she urged people to "remember there are real people with loved ones involved".

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan is among those who have said Arday was subjected to unrelenting media scrutiny.

He said Arday had faced "an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse", adding that he was a victim of "a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn't have faced".

"His death was a tragedy, but once again it should be a wake up call for all of us," he posted on X.

Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, Prof Simon Baron-Cohen said he spoke to Arday the morning of his death, and said the academic had felt unable to leave the house.

"He has experienced what he described as a campaign against him, for the last three years," he told BBC News.

ogododo:
BREAKING: Jason Arday has been found dead at an address in Battersea.

Kobojunkie:
He seriously killed himself over being caught for plagiarism? This is seriously very low of him! Hopefully, he will do better in his next life.😒😒

FreeStuffsNG:
➜It is much deeper. His scandal has started destroying a lot of careers. Even the university that awarded him his PhD is in the eye of the storm too.
He lived on the fast lane and really would have ended up in jail or probably some day assasinated by those involved in the cover ups.

PulaPower:
I knew this guy would have a problem cuz of his race..

He should never have applied to work at Cambridge in the first place..

FreeStuffsNG:
It is much deeper. His scandal has started destroying a lot of careers. Even the obscure university that awarded him his PhD is in the eye of the storm too.

He lived on the fast lane and really would have ended up in jail or probably some day assasinated by those involved in the cover ups.

PulaPower:
I knew this guy would have a problem cuz of his race..

He should never have applied to work at Cambridge in the first place..

faceland:
He guy was a big liar/fraud.

FreeStuffsNG:
It is much deeper. His scandal has started destroying a lot of careers. Even the obscure university that awarded him his PhD is in the eye of the storm too.

He lived on the fast lane and really would have ended up in jail or probably some day assasinated by those involved in the cover ups.

faceland:
He guy was a big liar/fraud.

AndroBlaze:
I don't know if you can call him a big liar and fraud....as sometimes I really wonder about white people , or should i say human beings in general.

I started following this story, 2 or 3 weeks before he resigned and I must say nothing shocked me, except his eventual suicide ( as I thought he would be a bit stronger).

I mean I watched interviews of the guy, read a bit of his bio, and me that I don't have a PhD, I knew instantly he wasn't genuine nor as intelligent as he was being made out to be (note I am not using "pretended" here for a reason).

Most of the professors and people who sang his praises and assessed him, have far more life experience than me....are they really claiming they didn't know their were holes in his story and he wasn't as "terrific" as they were painting him out to be?

Let me be clear on what I am saying....people like to be lied too and told fairytales , especially when they feel like they are part of the ridiculous fantasy, and in this case, they loved the fantasy of the blackman that beats all odds.

We were told this guy could not speak till he was eleven. Was illiterate till 18. Had all sorts of psychological, learning and behavioural disorders. Was a champion athlete. All this he did and achieved before 40, and thus became one of the youngest top black professors in the world in an obscure field.

A man who looked like a woman every time I saw him. In fact the first time I saw him I dug to confirm if he was transgender, only to be shocked now to find out that he was a father....it was this man that achieved all these things... while those black Africans from stable homes, who know their gender, whose parents were academics, who looked the dull part, spoke the dull part, acted the dull part, had boring/common traditional stories, were never good enough to achieve all the things he achieved so fast abi!

The man was "created" by white people who wanted to "fetish" on us, that's why he ticked every single "fetish box" of the left in particular.

Now he has wasted his life for an allegation that is as old and pointless as time. To make it clear, I don't think he is more guilty of plagiarism than anyone of his generation, than any other average white/black academic is currently.

He is the fall guy for a confused world. Where people don't like the truth and want to imagine fairytales. Where everybody wants to live 50 different lives in one short story!

A pretty ridiculous, disingenuous and manipulative world!

motymop:
stop saying what you dont know, Do you realize he was attack for his race and the person who started the smear campaign against him was a white professor who got sacked because he thinks black people do not deserve the role they get

the black guy already held senior academic roles including Associate Professor at Durham University and Full Professor at the University of Glasgow. By standard academic progression, a full professor at Glasgow is a valid candidate for a professorial chair at Cambridge.

Cambridge hired him explicitly to lead research on structural inequality, neurodiversity, and race in British higher education topics on which he was a leading UK voice.

FreeStuffsNG:
Smh.

You are clearly ignorant about the academic fraud he committed. I will not give you the free education here since you obviously don't know how severe the case of plagiarism is considered in academia. He already admitted to plagiarism of his PhD work but blamed his mediocre PhD supervisor.

motymop:
all what you wrote does not disqualify him..he legitimately got a phd and he was an associate professor in other schools before Cambridge


Cambridge hired him to lead research on structural inequality, neurodiversity and race in British higher education

AndroBlaze:
If you really read my post and all you could take from it was he didn't "legitimately get his PhD"...then I'm really unsure what to say to you

motymop:
you are just repeating social media banters in all your write up and then smearing the guy

have you ever done any research about him, and why he was employed by the school, the teaching roles he had in other universities before coming to Cambridge

and who started the smear campaign against him? you never did, you just repeating what the main stream media wrote

AndroBlaze:
Ok, so I imagined that he participated in interviews where the claims about him being unable to speak till 11 and being illiterate till 18 occured?

It was social media that asked him to claim he ran 30 marathons in 35 days abi?

The mainstream media forced him to write a book on his marvellous life that is about to come out abi?

Oga, if you can't understand the import of my initial post on him, let me be from your mentions, abeg.

motymop:
you are the one that is ignorant, reading social media banters by right wing media and then posting it as the truth

when in reality there was no record of him admitting to intentional plagiarism or placing the blame on his PhD supervisor

did you even read his resignation letter where he denied intentional plagiarism

he explicitly stated that his decision to step down was due to the intolerable personal and mental toll of the public commentary, adding that his departure should not be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me

motymop:
you are the one that is ignorant, reading social media banters by right wing media and then posting it as the truth

when in reality there was no record of him admitting to intentional plagiarism or placing the blame on his PhD supervisor

did you even read his resignation letter where he denied intentional plagiarism

he explicitly stated that his decision to step down was due to the intolerable personal and mental toll of the public commentary, adding that his departure should not be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me

ogododo:
BREAKING: Jason Arday has been found dead at an address in Battersea.

https://x.com/i/status/2088341717674037571

motymop:
so many silly people in the comment section.

This guy was targeted because of his Race and the originator was Nathan Cofnas a very controversial white professor that was sacked by Cambridge and who have been writing articles to smear black people, he alerted a Cambridge faculty member and ran Arday's 2015 PhD thesis through a plagiarism-detection software. He publicly posted side-by-side text comparisons showing over 100 passages matching an earlier 2009 doctoral thesis.

Cofnas framed the discovery as a direct attack on diversity hiring, arguing that elite universities lower academic standards for minority candidates and then the main stream media pick up the story and started their own agenda

see...the Liverpool John Moores University, the school that awarded the black guy PhD had previously investigated and cleared him of wrongdoing regarding his thesis. However, following mounting media pressure and calls from some Cambridge academics for an independent inquiry into his hiring, Cambridge announced a review of its processes, leading to Arday's resignation

you know what, as a black guy, never be the poster boy for any agenda of white people cultural war ( immigration or any stuff) it is always a setup, white institutions wont protect you when things goes south

If a white professional makes a mistake or falls short, it's treated as an individual failure. If a Black professional placed on a pedestal makes a mistake, the culture war turns it into a verdict on all Black people

motymop:
stop saying what you dont know, Do you realize he was attack for his race and the person who started the smear campaign against him was a white professor who got sacked because he thinks black people do not deserve the role they get

the black guy already held senior academic roles including Associate Professor at Durham University and Full Professor at the University of Glasgow. By standard academic progression, a full professor at Glasgow is a valid candidate for a professorial chair at Cambridge.

Cambridge hired him explicitly to lead research on structural inequality, neurodiversity, and race in British higher education topics on which he was a leading UK voice.