On Saturday, news broke that Jason Arday, until recently a professor at Cambridge University, had been found dead.
It came after weeks of intense media scrutiny and discussion of Arday’s credentials and life story, sparked by a blog post alleging he plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis.
Arday was 41 and is survived by his wife and young children.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has described his death as “a moment for reflection... reflecting on how things came to this.”
So, how did they come to this?
Jason Arday
Jason Arday was born in 1985 in London.
His parents had migrated to the UK from Ghana and his family lived on a council estate.
According to Arday’s memoir, he was diagnosed with autism at age three, did not speak until he was almost 12, and did not learn to read or write until he was 18.
He graduated with a degree in education in 2008, then went on to earn a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in 2015.
Outside of academia, he was an active fundraiser and worked to provide clean water to communities in Africa and South America.
One of his fundraisers involved running 30 marathons in 35 days in 2010, which he told local media at the time he completed with a hairline fracture in his leg.
Arday was a torchbearer in the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics.
According to his memoir, before handing in his PhD thesis in 2015, doctors found he had a brain tumour.
After it was removed, Arday said he developed short-term memory loss, and found he “was reading [his thesis] as if for the first time”.
Arday’s academic work focused on “race, education and society” and “the long-term impacts of racial discrimination in education,” according to a statement from Cambridge University.
In 2023, he became a professor at Cambridge, making him the youngest Black person to ever hold that job at the university.
UK university professors are typically senior researchers and teachers with lots of published work.
In 2024-25, around 1% of professors in the UK were Black.
Plagiarism claim
Jack Grove, a Times Higher Education journalist, began investigating Arday last year, assembling a 63-page report alleging he’d plagiarised another student’s thesis and other academics’ work.
Grove submitted his findings to LJMU, which later cleared Arday.
After emailing Arday seeking clarification, Grove told BBC Radio 4 that police informed him “a complaint had been raised against me by someone and Professor Arday was very distressed and I shouldn’t contact him again.”
Grove had not yet published anything about Arday when another researcher, Nathan Cofnas, said he had run Arday’s PhD through plagiarism checking software in a blog post on 21 July.
Cofnas said the software showed similarities to another thesis written by an academic called Paula Zwozdiak-Myers in 2009.
Cofnas – a self-described “race realist” – said in 2024 that if university positions were truly based on merit, “the number of Black professors would approach 0%.”
“Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment,” he said.
Cambridge’s Emmanuel College cut ties with him over the comments in 2024.
A separate university inquiry later found his comments were “offensive” but didn’t breach the law or university rules.
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Media coverage of Cofnas’ allegations soon exploded, including a story that Arday had hired a high-powered law firm to send a legal letter to Grove to stop his story.
Fallout
Over the following weeks, there was extensive media coverage of Arday, examining both his academic record and what he had said about his life.
Arday was due to release his memoir, ‘Great and Unfortunate Things’, this month.
Coverage also focused on the details of the memoir, including questions about his brain tumour, and about whether he installed water pumps in Brazil.
Two universities with which Arday said he was associated have publicly denied he worked there.
Arday’s Response
Speaking to The Times of London on 31 July, Arday said he was “accountable for the mistakes I’ve made... We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder someone.”
He alleged there was a “racially motivated” campaign to remove him from his professorship at Cambridge.
Arday said he had corrected errors that had previously been found in his work, and that it was more likely that any errors were mistakes than deliberate lies.
Resignation
Arday resigned from Cambridge on 5 August, the same day the university announced it had begun investigating him.
In a statement, Arday said: “While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement.”
Media coverage about Arday continued despite his resignation.
From 5 August to the day Arday’s death was confirmed, The Times published more than 30 articles about him, including op-eds.
Death
Arday was found unresponsive at a south London home on Friday (local time), according to UK media reports.
“Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene... At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Investigators will prepare a report for the coroner.
In the days leading up to his death, Arday cancelled scheduled events promoting his forthcoming memoir.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham called Arday’s death “a tragedy on so many levels,” and said this was not a time for judgement, but “a moment for reflection”.
In a letter to staff and students, Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said: “We pause to remember [Arday], and to mourn his loss, which will be felt across the collegiate University and beyond.”
“I hope that this painful and difficult time can also be one of compassion... we are committed to ensuring that no one feels they must face this alone,” Prentice added.
Reaction
Arday’s book publisher Simon & Schuster said it was “deeply saddened” by news of his death.
The publisher also issued a statement from Arday’s family, which said: “We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”
“Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse for more than three years... [this] was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.”
They’ve called for privacy and an end to the “harassment which has been waged against Jason and his family for too long.”
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