Controversial educational Jason Arday ‘discovered lifeless’ at dwelling amid Cambridge plagiarism furore
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Mr Arday resigned as professor of sociology of education at the University of Cambridge
A former Cambridge University professor at the centre of a plagiarism row has reportedly been found dead at his home. Jason Arday, 41, was found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said officers were called by the London Ambulance Service at 3.12pm on Friday. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
The spokesman said: “Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by officers. At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.
Mr Arday found himself at the centre of a row over false biographical claims and plagiarism(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
“The case is being investigated by officers from the Met’s Central South Command Unit. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”
Mr Arday became the university’s youngest ever black professor in 2023. But he resigned as professor of sociology of education at the University of Cambridge earlier this month after accusations of plagiarism.
Last week, Cambridge launched an investigation into Mr Arday’s appointment and his time at the university, which will feed into a review of the university’s hiring process for all senior academic positions.
(Image: Joe Giddens/LOCOG/PA Wire)
Mr Arday resigned just a few hours after the university announced the investigation, citing the “unrelenting level of public scrutiny”.
He worked as a PE teacher before earning his doctorate at Liverpool John Moores University (LMJU). He then went on to become an associate professor at Durham University and professor of sociology of education at the University of Glasgow.
But a series of media reports questioned some of his achievements and allegations of plagiarism in his PhD thesis. Accusations of plagiarism in his work were first voiced by a US researcher and self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas.
Mr Arday was a professor at the University of Cambridge (Image: TOLGA AKMEN/EPA/Shutterstock)
His role at a Cambridge college was terminated after backlash to his view that black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment” under a true meritocracy.
He claimed on Substack that he had put Mr Arday’s work through a plagiarism detection software, which found that “many passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source”.
Cambridge had initially described allegations made against Mr Arday as a “vile campaign to undermine his credibility”. Last week, Mr Arday admitted to a series of errors in his work and quit his role as professor, but denied the claims against him.
Mr Arday insisted he was not a “liar and fantasist” (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
He went on to insist he is not a “liar and fantasist” after a remarkable list of personal achievements – including running 600 miles in six days and raising millions of pounds for charity – were called into question.
Another wild claim was that he appeared in the TV series Seven Up, despite it broadcasting two decades before he was born. He told The Times: “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.”
Analysis of his PhD thesis claimed to show 180 passages were a match or near-match for another students. Mr Arday has said this was a result of his autism, meaning means he absorbs information through mimicry.
He admitted that his outstanding feat of running 600 miles in six days was also wrong and it had taken 12 days. He also said the £5.5million he has raised for charity was not done alone but instead as part of a syndicate of around 100 others.
Jesus College said previously that it was launching its own process in relation to the allegation. An investigation at Liverpool John Moores University cleared Mr Arday of wrongdoing.
He was also accused of using AI to write his resignation letter in which he said “the only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away”.
His memoir, titled Great and Unfortunate Things, was published in the United States earlier this week and is due to be published by Simon and Schuster in the UK in two weeks time.
