The University of Cambridge is to examine how it appoints senior academics as it investigates plagiarism allegations involving Jason Arday, the professor who resigned from his post this week.
Mr Arday, who attracted widespread attention after becoming Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, stepped down on Wednesday. His resignation followed the university’s announcement of an inquiry into mounting claims that sections of his PhD thesis had been plagiarised.
In an update, Cambridge said that, “regardless of” Mr Arday’s resignation, it would “continue to investigate the circumstances around (his) appointment and tenure”.
“The findings will feed into a review of the process for the appointment of senior academic roles,” the university said.
In a letter published online, Mr Arday said resigning was “the only way” to bring a “difficult period” to an end. But he stressed that his decision should not be “mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me”.
Cambridge had earlier defended Mr Arday, but said on Wednesday that fresh “new information” had led it to open the inquiry. It did not provide further details.
Jesus College, where Mr Arday is based, said it would conduct a separate investigation.
Its head, Sonita Alleyne — the first black leader of an Oxbridge college — has withdrawn her name from a petition that defended Mr Arday.
According to the Guardian, senior academics at Cambridge are also understood to be circulating a letter seeking an investigation into the procedures surrounding his appointment.
The controversy has been embraced by right-wing newspapers and commentators, some of whom have described Mr Arday as a “poster boy” for diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Media reports have also raised questions about other statements attributed to the professor of sociology of education, including claims that he ran 966km in six days and secured £5.5 million for charity.
The Times newspaper has published a series of investigative reports examining Mr Arday’s academic work and personal life.
Speaking to the paper, Mr Arday acknowledged “mistakes” in his academic work, but rejected what he called an unfair portrayal of him as “a liar and a fantasist and an academic fraud”.
He further claimed that the “campaign to unseat me from my position” was “racially motivated”.
The plagiarism allegations first emerged in July, when they were made by Nathan Cofnas, a US academic and self-described “race realist”. His research affiliation with a Cambridge college was terminated in 2024 following accusations of racism.
Following Mr Arday’s resignation, academics warned that the case could give opponents of diversity and equality programmes a powerful “weapon” while discouraging other black scholars from pursuing careers in academia.
Alan Lester, professor of historical geography at the University of Sussex, said: “The tragedy is that this case now provides the far-right racists who condemn any equalities and diversity initiatives with a weapon that they will wield egregiously.”
Kehinde Andrews, who until recently was professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, told Sky News: “No one’s handing out favours to black people in higher education, and that idea is deeply dangerous and deeply racist.
“There is a whole campaign to get more black professors in, but the experiences that we have tend to be horrendous and it does put people off from trying to even get into these places in the first place.”
The Metropolitan Police has also faced criticism over its handling of a harassment allegation made against a Times Higher Education journalist who emailed Prof Arday with questions several months ago.
Commissioner Mark Rowley told LBC that the force had “dropped the ball on that one”, adding that the report should have been “screened out earlier as not requiring investigation”.
Additional reporting: PA
