Why did Cambridge professor Jason Arday resign?

Jason Arday was once the darling of academia.Now he's resigned amid scandal.A string of allegations regarding plagiarism and tall tales raised questions about himself, Cambridge University and higher learning in general.Arday became the youngest black professor in Cambridge's history in 2023.A stunning achievement for someone who said he was mute until 11, has struggled with his autism and left school with two GCSEs.

I went to university at 20, but I had the reading age of a nine -year -old.You know, so you're trying to really kind of...Really?

I mean, is that possible?

Yeah, it is.Muhammad Ali spoke about this idea of will versus skill.Now, I don't have any skill, but what I do have is an indomitable will.

Concerns about Arday's credentials as a professor of sociology of education have swirled around Cambridge's spires for years, but they came back to the fore recently.Writing on Substack, a self -described race realist Nathan Kofnas wrote, That dissertation was submitted to Liverpool John Moores University.They said a confidential procedure had been conducted and that Arday's PhD still stood.But two of his articles in journals have been corrected in recent years following further claims of plagiarism, with Arday admitting to referencing errors.Cambridge University had begun an investigation, as had his college, Jesus.But then Arday resigned, criticising an unrelenting level of scrutiny and attacks.

Arday said that while criticism is inevitable, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement.The relentless accusation, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.He said the resignation should not bemistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me."" The allegation is that conservative figures are taking down black academics in their war on diversity.Kofnas, who wrote that original substack about Arday, has himself been criticised for his views on race and academia, which have been described as deeply offensive.

If your concern is about a very important issue of plagiarism, are you not concerned that those figures on the right are actually using this to not address something like that, they're using it to attack diversity, to attack sociology, to attack universities themselves?

Well, that's possibly true, but what's the best defence against that?The best defence against that is, for me, is to maintain academic standards.And sociology does have academic standards and they need to be maintained.

But another history professor at Cambridge was found to have plagiarised and remained in post just a few years ago.Why was that not front page news?And is there a wider concern here about plagiarism at a time when there is a financial crisis at universities?

They have to publish articles in the best journals to almost survive these calls of redundancies.Does that mean there's a lot more plagiarism?Well, I'm sure there is pressure on some academics to look at other people's work.

Plagiarism is generally taken the least seriously.A lot of charges have been raised.They've, you know, been confirmed and many people remain in their position.

Why is plagiarism not taken that seriously?

I don't have a good answer for that, honestly.You know, part of it is there's the ability to deny it and say, oh, this was just a little bit of sloppiness.

But there were wider concerns with Professor Arday.Talking to The Guardian, he said a pig's head was once sent to his parents' address, and that police looked into the matter.But The Met said no investigation had taken place.And his Cambridge faculty page said he had visiting professorships at Glasgow and Ohio State Universities.Both institutions have now closed.they have no records of Arday holding such positions.

Honestly, I would say this attains the reputation of all academics and folks in these embattled humanities fields.

But is the concern there that this is, that he's letting figures down?Or is it that other figures, black, ethnic minority, are looking at this and saying, the minute you put your head above the parapet, you are hounded and hounded.

There's a bit of both in that.But he was put up as the poster boy by Cambridge in his biography and by the people who appointed him there.And I'm going back again to the...So Cambridge has more to answer than him?Cambridge has something to answer for this, yeah.

Arday has denied he is a liar and fabulist and spoken about the scrutiny he has faced and the pressure of his role.

This might sound like a crazy thing to say, but I don't really like... research, I find it difficult.Being an academic is really, really difficult.

Just like with any thesis, there are multiple chapters.Arday has questions to answer, but there is also the concern about his apparent hounding out at a time when there are so few senior black academics at universities.And there are still plenty of questions for Cambridge and whether the university did enough, not just to support Arday, but whether they should have put him in this position in the first place.

I've been speaking to the academic and activist Professor Gus John and Ian Pace, who's Professor of Music, Culture and Society at City and St George's University in London.I started by asking Gus John whether he thought Mr Ade had lost his job because he was hounded out or because of his own dishonesty.

Whatever his dishonesty may have been, there's no question that people alighted on his infractions or issues to do with his qualifications and achievements, with a hostility which I thinkis really due principally to people's concerns about the abilities of black people.

I mean, he was accused of plagiarism.He is accused of lying about some of his other achievements.I mean, that is a fact, is it not?

You are right.There are things which, according to what I've read, simply do not add up and require some explanations.Now, why these were not picked up earlier in his career?I mean, after all, he'd been to Ravensbourne, he's been to Durham, he'd been to Glasgow before getting to Cambridge.I'm not quite sure.But it seems to me that that along the way, there are many people who could have intervened Whether to correct what he was doing or to say to him he needed to be more transparent about what he's saying his achievements are, I don't know.

But it seems to me that there were failings all along the way, as far as he was concerned.

Let's turn to you, Professor Ian Pace.I mean, is it fair to say that Professor Jason Arday would not have been hounded in the way that he was if he had been white?

No, I don't accept that.I mean, if you look at this, this has been really quite an incredible story and the amount of things that have come out.It just almost beggars belief at times.If I look first just at his work, because I first became aware of this autumn of last year when journalist Jack Grove approached me and approached a few other academics.He knew that I'd published articles about plagiarism and so on.And he said this is one of the biggest cases he's ever seen in terms of the sheer quantity.

Based on what?Based on examining his work.detail and finding large passages which were lifted verbatim or near verbatim from other scholars' work.Someone was getting a doctoral degree in part by passing someone else's work off as their own.

But that's not the first time that would have happened.

I give you the case of Professor William O 'Reilly. A historian at Cambridge University found guilty of doing exactly what you just described in 2023. And guess what? Still teaching at Cambridge as a professor. I haven't investigated that case in detail, so I would have to do that to ascertain the extent of the plagiarism there. But I will say that from my own investigation, and I've been checking some of Adi's work myself, and I've read through quite a lot of it, I'd say this plagiarism is a consistent factor across a whole range of it, not just the PhD thesis. A fraction of that, if we saw this in an undergraduate paper, we would be reading the right act to them. And I've been on many panels where we've been doing that with students. and accused of plagiarism. Can I ask you both a question? I mean, and you refer to this, Professor John, that there was such a long line of universities that should have looked into his record and into his work more accurately, and they didn't. So is the university system here at fault? They're just not doing their job. First you, Professor John. I would say yes, because you see, I said earlier that neurodiversity is a factor in this, and it was a factor. I'm not quite sure the extent to which reasonable adjustments were made to support him in his academic career. I'm surprised that some of the stuff that's emerging now was not picked up by John Liverpool, John Moores 10 years ago or whatever it is. And when I say that he's been failed along the way, what I'm actually saying is that supervisorspeople who had the job, never mind the capacity, to comment upon his work and give him some developmental assistance on the basis of their assessments, didn't do so.

Yeah, but there are many people who will say the reason why they didn't do so is because they were too woke.They didn't want to ask the awkward questions.

That may be true in some instances.But in other instances, I believe that it is because people were not diligent enough about ensuring that he was given the kind of support and assistance that he needed.

Professor Pace, perhaps finally, I mean, this comes, this discussion, and the reason why it's become so inflamed is because it comes in the middle of a very, very heated political context.In America, we see an administration that is, you know, using the abolition of DEI as one of its, you know, articles of faith.Isn't the danger of this example, and that's why we all have to be really careful, that this could get so badly out of hand and some very innocent and brilliant people could get thrown under the bus unfairly?

Yes, there are dangers.don't believe we are facing a figure akin to Donald Trump being, well, not head of state, but our prime minister here.Yes, but you can see the climate changing, can't you?Yes, I can, but I would look at this from another angle.This is a time of relatively low public confidence in higher education, which is currently going through a financial crisis.There are cuts and redundancies all over the sector.

I think it's really important that the sector does everything it can to regain public trust in what they do.The sector is being decimated at the moment, and we have to show why we really matter.

He's one person.He is one person.And the argument that you're making, Professor Peace, and many others in the media...the right -wing advocates of getting rid of Ade and people like him, is that we all, all black academics, need to be looked at carefully in case they're a replica of Ade.And that is what is going to be happening from now on.You can't deny that.

Not all academics.

It's not about race.Shouldn't you all be, if that's where we're going, shouldn't every academic, including you, Professor Pace, put their work through a plagiarism detector?Everyone, regardless of colour.Is that where we're going?

I think that would be no bad thing.Often, certainly, in my case, we do so.I mean, I think I'd know if I plagiarised stuff.But yes, I think work generally should be done.books are a plagiarism detector, and journals should do that, and recruitment panels should do that.

Okay, we'll leave it there.Professor Pace, Professor John, thank you very much for your time, both of you.Thank you.