A University of Cambridge professor at the centre of a high-profile plagiarism row has resigned after being placed under investigation.
Professor Jason Arday, a professor of sociology of education who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, resigned from his post on Wednesday evening after the university launched an inquiry into his “academic qualifications and honorary appointments”.
It followed a series of media reports, including a story in the Daily Telegraph, alleging he plagiarised his PhD thesis and other research.
Nathan Cofnas, an academic sacked from a Cambridge college role in 2024, said he had run Prof Arday's PhD thesis through plagiarism detection software and found what he described as passages "lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source".
The Telegraph subsequently reported that more than 100 passages in the thesis were said to closely resemble an earlier thesis by another academic, Paula Zwozdiak-Myers of Brunel University London.
People walking among the cloisters beneath Bute Hall at the University of Glasgow. (Image: Colin Mearns)
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Prof Arday has not disputed that errors exist in his work. He has instead argued that he lacked adequate supervision during his PhD because of his autism and learning disabilities, and could not afford a proofreader early in his career.
Further questions were asked in the press about the truth of other claims made by Prof Arday, including saying that he ran 600 miles in six days and that he had raised £5.5 million for charity.
In a letter addressed to colleagues published on the Good Law Project’s website, Professor Arday said: “While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”
Professor Arday said that the “only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away”, adding: “This decision should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge.
“Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me. It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.”
