Professor Jason Arday - plagiarism etc

M0nica

Just because someone is racially prejudiced does to mean that every thing they say is untrue. merely that they will highlight any information they find that is to the disadvantage of the person accused - and the information this man found was pretty damning

I still do not understand how some one could be appointed a professor, other than an honorary one, whose academic attainments were not already well known and proven to those involved with appointing him.

Neither do I, especially at a prestigious university. Or do they operate a tick box diversity programme there? Do they not check a thesis for plagiarism?
As for all his other claims, well 🙄

LemonJam

Arday was diagnosed with Global Development Delay aged 3, characterised by slow cognitive and physical processing. Also an Autism diagnosis alongside, same age. He was non verbal till age 11 and did not learn to read or write until he was 18 years old. He also has epilepsy, developed a brain tumour during his PHD studies and suffered a stroke after his PHD thesis. So he did well to achieve his early academic qualifications.

Academic rules and appropriate conduct are important however for reasons posted earlier.

Someone somewhere needs to verify everything he says and claims.

I presume people are doing that right now.

I think he has a book coming out.

I presume he may write another one afterwards.
And his life made into a film.

Yes,neural diversity is served very badly by people using it as an excuse for bad conduct.It isn't an excuse .

Sarnia

So many of his claims can be verified. If he is found to be a fraud then I hope he doesn't hide behind his autism. My experience with autistic people is that they are very honest. Everything is black and white. Rules are made to be followed. If he is lying then he knows it, no excuses.

I agree.

Arday was diagnosed with Global Development Delay aged 3, characterised by slow cognitive and physical processing. Also an Autism diagnosis alongside, same age. He was non verbal till age 11 and did not learn to read or write until he was 18 years old. He also has epilepsy, developed a brain tumour during his PHD studies and suffered a stroke after his PHD thesis. So he did well to achieve his early academic qualifications.

Academic rules and appropriate conduct are important however for reasons posted earlier.

Primrose53

Yet another seemingly Walter Mitty character but this guy has gone far seemingly unchallenged …… until now.

Reminds me of The Emperor’s New Clothes story. 😉
His claims are absolutely laughable.

The story is in all the newspapers and channels but am linking Wiki as whichever link is added, some people will ridicule it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Arday

Thanks for posting this Primrose53 it’s mind boggling isn’t it?
A modern day Walter Mitty indeed, Cambridge University needs a reality check with their approach to applications 😄
Like actually checking all claims.

He looks so nice and kind...in his photo! Just saying. Do you think the difficulties experienced with Autism were under-recognised and under-supported. I can't imagine Cambridge being hot in their pastoral duties. Perhaps initially experiencing recognition/admiration, he enjoyed that feeling/kudos and thereafter he became obsessed with achieving that feeling again and again. A fantasy land yes , but I hear some autistic people find reality unbearable.

So many of his claims can be verified. If he is found to be a fraud then I hope he doesn't hide behind his autism. My experience with autistic people is that they are very honest. Everything is black and white. Rules are made to be followed. If he is lying then he knows it, no excuses.

Rosie51

LemonJam Cafnas may still hold a grudge?

Quite possibly, but the allegations of plagiarism and outright lying by Arday are either true or untrue. When he accepted the publicity and praise for all his "achievements" he equally accepted scrutiny of their genuineness.
If he hasn't plagiarised and his claims of running 600 miles in 6 days, raising £5 million for charity etc etc are true then he will have been exonerated. If he is guilty of the accusations made against him should he be treated differently to anyone else guilty of the same offences just because a load of people signed a petition?

I agree that if allegations of plagiarism are found to be true and found to be serious he should face the appropriate sanctions in the same way as anybody else. It will be ruinous all round for sure.

Investigation of plagiarism is a proper instrument designed to protect academic integrity, wellbeing and intellectual property. Thats is the crux of the claims and concern.

To have such instruments weaponised disproportionally against black academics however is a reportedly a thing. Conservatism activists trawling exclusively through the work of black academics, looking for anything to weaponise against them, inconsistencies, citation errors, passages in their work that are similar to other papers is disproportionate and arguably discriminatory.

Ofcourse as soon as an error is identified, right wing media outlets and conservative politicians join the pile on- heaping pressure on universities to cut ties.

Claudin Gay, the first black woman to become president of Harvard university, was only in the post for 7 months before she was forced out by plagiarism allegations. Some academics have killed themselves in such a situation.

Cafnas is a proven 'race realist' which infers some antipathy to black academics, and perhaps he also has antipathy to Cambridge University as a result of his terminated post and court case loss. Possibly.

Concerns of academic misconduct I take seriously and ofcourse should be investigated accordingly. They may be proven against Arday- and if so dealt with appropriately. He won't be the first and won't be the last University professor to face claims of plagiarism and be investigated.

The stakes are ruinous for Arday if plagiarism claims substantiated in a high profile Cambridge University. C University will have to be seen to take action if so and also face questions about their recruitment and selection process.

However, why the self righteousness (e.g from Cafnas) and why the extent of the pile on during a live investigation?

Doodledog

I'm sure there is a lot more to the story, and time will tell about the extent of the deception, but I agree with WWM that 'the X card' is a dubious phrase. It suggests that racism (or sexism, MH or whatever) is a game, and diminishes the claims of those who say that they are being discriminated against. It also suggests that those in vulnerable groups hold 'trumps' that are inevitably going to win every argument, which is clearly unfair.

Some may be swinging the lead, but many won't be, and others will firmly believe that they are being discriminated against even if a tribunal or court finds otherwise. It's important that we don't minimise their claims, or stop them from voicing concerns by talking about 'cards'.

Thank you for putting this so very clearly.

As someone in the mental health field both as a worker, in my training, and as a customer at times in my life:

It makes me very angry when some poor soul is labelled as "using the card".

Time to stop using it: period.

It can do untold damage when a vulnerable person is jammed into a category they have no control over.

I'm not saying in any of the categories we have alluded to people never take advantage of situation, but its "damns the lot" quite grossly.

We wouldn't dream of saying it of an abused or raped woman they are "Using a card" if they cannot remember or recall all exactly, or not have the words/the intellect to put it well enough for a good outcome for them.

But it happens

The support and admiration for the authors of that saga soon faded away once the truth emerged but of course there hadn't been a petition of support signed by the 'great and good'.

10,000 of them.

Galaxy

What happened to the salt path people did they just get away with it all?

As far as I'm aware, while being discredited they remain rich from the book sales and film rights. Last I heard they live on the Lizard peninsula.

Seems Arday WAS not averse to playing the race card after all.

Jack Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education (THE), was accused of harassment after he emailed a series of questions to Prof Jason Arday about his academic record. Mr Grove said officers told him to stop contacting the professor because his “mental health” had been affected by the questions.

Prof Arday also hired the law firm Carter-Ruck, which suggested in a letter to THE that its “apparent attack” on him “may be... racially motivated”.

I think some of it came to light a couple of years ago doodledog if you look at some of the reporting. So it appears a number of charities that had links with him began editing the claims to more reflect reality back in 2025. I would guess this has been some time in the making.

What happened to the salt path people did they just get away with it all?

Galaxy

I think people also underestimate 'the process is the punishment' part of this for the whistleblowers. Very few people are brave enough to be whistleblowers, and I don't, in a sense blame them. One journalist who reported on the allegations was reported to the police, many of us have watched how whistleblowers have been treated, it frequently requires courage, financial security and the hide of a rhinoceros.

I haven't read any posts that anyone has underestimated anything with regard to whistleblowers.

I’m reading your posts but reflecting on what factual detail you may have in explanatory and contextual support to give a meaningful consideration and response.

For example, in what way has Cafnas been punished as a whistleblower for making his claims against Arday? Or any other whistleblowers in this case? Cfanas' s terminated Cambridge University Contract and his failed court case against Cambridge university predated his claims against Arday. Cafnas no doubt was paid for his newspaper stories? His claims against Arday in respect of Cambridge University are being investigated, which is right and proper.

What specific whistleblowing concerns do you say have been raised by Wateraid and 'other numerous' organisations? How many 'numerous' organisations do you claim had concerns? Did they investigate such concerns at the time? If so what did they do as a result of their investigations and were any respective whistle blowers punished?

I understand the Police asked the journalist in question to stop contacting Arday directly, nothing more, nothing less. The police most likely had a reason for advising this course of action.

Galaxy

I don't know how there could be a lot more to the story without it becoming a Greek myth. It certainly out Salt Paths the Salt Path.

Well, there will be people saying they could have had jobs and publications and so on had this not happened - that's the sort of implication I mean.

Like M0nica, I am surprised this hasn't come to light before now.

Galaxy

I don't know how there could be a lot more to the story without it becoming a Greek myth. It certainly out Salt Paths the Salt Path.

That made me smile 😊

The support and admiration for the authors of that saga soon faded away once the truth emerged but of course there hadn't been a petition of support signed by the 'great and good'.

His memoir is to be released next month, I cant decide if this is disastrous or genius publicity.

I don't know how there could be a lot more to the story without it becoming a Greek myth. It certainly out Salt Paths the Salt Path.

LemonJam Cafnas may still hold a grudge?

Quite possibly, but the allegations of plagiarism and outright lying by Arday are either true or untrue. When he accepted the publicity and praise for all his "achievements" he equally accepted scrutiny of their genuineness.
If he hasn't plagiarised and his claims of running 600 miles in 6 days, raising £5 million for charity etc etc are true then he will have been exonerated. If he is guilty of the accusations made against him should he be treated differently to anyone else guilty of the same offences just because a load of people signed a petition?

I'm sure there is a lot more to the story, and time will tell about the extent of the deception, but I agree with WWM that 'the X card' is a dubious phrase. It suggests that racism (or sexism, MH or whatever) is a game, and diminishes the claims of those who say that they are being discriminated against. It also suggests that those in vulnerable groups hold 'trumps' that are inevitably going to win every argument, which is clearly unfair.

Some may be swinging the lead, but many won't be, and others will firmly believe that they are being discriminated against even if a tribunal or court finds otherwise. It's important that we don't minimise their claims, or stop them from voicing concerns by talking about 'cards'.

Nathan Cofnas, is also a person who has faced academic controversies of his own. He faced his own Cambridge University, Emmanuel College internal scrutiny and investigations. As a result, eventually he was sacked.

Cafnas bought a claim against the University. It went to court.

The College argued that Cafnas actions had caused "a hostile, intimidating, unwelcome and degrading environment for members of the College and that he had caused "a crisis in the student community". The judge agreed. Cafnas lost his case.

Cafnas may still hold a grudge?

I think people also underestimate 'the process is the punishment' part of this for the whistleblowers. Very few people are brave enough to be whistleblowers, and I don't, in a sense blame them. One journalist who reported on the allegations was reported to the police, many of us have watched how whistleblowers have been treated, it frequently requires courage, financial security and the hide of a rhinoceros.

Galaxy

It is numerous organisations po8ntibg out concerns unless we are now saying they are all institutionally racist, and Wateraid, etc.

'Concerns' that happened in their organisations?

If so and the concerns were of a serious nature why didn't those organisations investigate, find out the facts, and take appropriate action at the time?