Professor Jason Arday - plagiarism etc

Have you been around universities lately. A man teaching woman studies would be pretty much mandatory.

I obviously an not defending Arday in any way however, I can understand why a university would want to have black lecturers in a department that was teaching critical race theory, particularly is an educational context. I doubt many universities would consider it acceptable to have women's studies taught by an all male team. However, I would expect all potential appointments to be subject to scrutiny, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or disability. IMO the fault was not in DEI but in the sloppy way that Cambridge University made the appointment.

Including DEI protagonists.

Agreed.

Some people dont seem to be able to do a balanced and middle ground on lots of things.

The real racists were those who chose on grounds of the colour of a person’s skin. It should have a no influence whatsoever on who they chose. Clearly.

Gracey

An enquiry has been called by academics shocked that he was ever appointed.
This highlights the stupidity of box ticking and DEI.
Shame on those smug and stupid people who appointed this Walter Mitty.
Arday has revealed that he was surprised his background was ever checked. That is the supreme arrogance of relying on his skin colour to give him a free pass.

Cambridge is one of the bastions of academic excellence. This fiasco has highlighted the idiocy of a woke initiative favoured over rigorous scrutiny and appointing on merit, and heaped shame and ridicule on one of the most prestigious Universities in the world. Rightly so.

I hope lessons have been learned. No pun intended.

Good post.

The Mumsnet threads (two lengthy ones) are interesting because there are a lot of active academics on there.

Plagiarism in his PhD is the reason the whole story came out in the first place.

Emeraldforest

I think plagiarism is rife from what I've read, he's an easy target to scapegoat.

Really? Where did you read that?

Plagiarism happens with students, undoubtedly, but from experience of working in a university for decades I doubt many academics would risk their reputation and career - plus, a love of their subject makes people want to find out more about it, not just copy others’ work. Delivering papers at conferences would get most people caught out anyway.

Professors often have their name on research papers that have largely been carried out by researchers, PhD students as the line, who appear as et al, and this can be galling, but it was ever thus, and is not plagiarism, just ‘the system’.

I was talking to someone today who is at a university, where Ablay was for a while a lecturer. They said that they found him quite kind and open to people and they said, as Boris Johnson, said the blame for this mess lies almost entirely with the university and the appointment process and a single minded obsession with wanting to make the university seem more diverse by appointing an Afro-Caribbean professor.

I think plagiarism is rife from what I've read, he's an easy target to scapegoat.

In today’s Sunday Times
The publishing company Simon & Schuster removed biographical references about Arday's alleged athletic feats and his fundraising accomplishments from his author's page on its website, according to archived web pages.
Simon & Schuster has insisted it will go ahead with the publication of the former University of Cambridge professor's memoir despite the ongoing furore. It is due to come out on August 27.
Between May 19 and July 25 last year, the claim that Arday had run “30 marathons in 35 days, 300 miles in three days and 600 miles in six days” was erased from his author's page on the company's website, as was a reference to the scholar raising “over £5.5 million pounds for 80 national charities over a 20-year period.”
Jason Arday denies plagiarising parts of the PhD dissertation he wrote in 2015
The part on fund raising was changed to say he had “raised millions of pounds for charity”. The edits suggest the publisher may have been aware of inconsistencies in Arday's life story before suspicions were publicly raised about the veracity of his achievements in recent weeks.

I read the comments posted above from students on Reddit, and was shocked. Arday seemed to have not the slightest idea of how to lecture, teach or mentor, and didn't even attempt to stick to the timetable, cancelling lectures , not reviewing work and finishing early. This should have been investigated early on.
I noticed one comment was about his time at Roehampton, presumably in the Education department. I went to one of the four colleges which combined to form the Roehampton Institute, now University, and used to mentor students from there on teaching practice. None of Arday's poor practice would have been tolerated then, and I noticed the tutor who received a complaint said, don't make a fuss, he is leaving shortly. Fear of accusations of racism?
Those students were paying for this, and in the case of the MA students at Cambridge, they only had the one chance to literally make the grade, and he failed them.

I am beginning to think that he knew exactly what he was doing, and decided to see how far he could push the boundaries. Given the university's burning desire to embrace equity - not equality - at any price, he was off to a head start, and the implausible and frankly ridiculous claims he has made could have been disproved before he was shortlisted...if there was even a shortlist, of course. Did nobody think to look at the details of the book he had published....that didn't exist? If anyone at Cambridge University thinks a person can run endless marathons with a broken leg, then they are delusional and need help.

fancythat

The poor man is ill.
He needs a lot of professional help.

I absolutely agree.

The kindest and most understanding article on this shambles, was, believe it or not, written in the Daily Mail by Boris Johnson. Someone I cannot stand.

In this article he showed deep sympathy and understanding for Jason Arblay. Essentially saying what you say fancythat. He laid the whole blame fairly and squarely on the shoulders of those in the university who were responsible for his appointment - and he was scathing. He saw Arblay as the victim of this event and to be sympathised with.

I confess to having an iron in the fire on this issue. This summer my son was awarded a professorship. After 25 years of academic endeavour, where from post-graduate level onwards he has won awards of all kinds for the quality of his work. He has publication list as long as your arm, plus awards for outreach work and teaching.

As professors go he is nothing special. This is the kind of background academic staff have to build up, before the ultimate accolade comes their way.

Not only is this appointment an insult to all professors who have won their title by the depth and quality of their work, but it is an even bigger insult to those Afro-Caribbean professors who have been awarded professor ships for the same reason my son has and have probably had to face discrimination on their way as well.

When a man like Jason Arblay is granted a professorship, it implicitly put a totally unjustified question mark over the head of every other professor with a similar ethnic background to his and sets back the progress of every other scholar of a similar background.

Apparently a student of his requested a change of tutor.

She was accused of racism.

Always shuts dissenters up. A useful tool.

An enquiry has been called by academics shocked that he was ever appointed.
This highlights the stupidity of box ticking and DEI.
Shame on those smug and stupid people who appointed this Walter Mitty.
Arday has revealed that he was surprised his background was ever checked. That is the supreme arrogance of relying on his skin colour to give him a free pass.

Cambridge is one of the bastions of academic excellence. This fiasco has highlighted the idiocy of a woke initiative favoured over rigorous scrutiny and appointing on merit, and heaped shame and ridicule on one of the most prestigious Universities in the world. Rightly so.

I hope lessons have been learned. No pun intended.

petra

welbeck

I have read comments from former students. Not at Cambridge.
Can't remember where I read it now. There is something out there including reddit etc. Basically they said he turned up v late sat on a desk and rambled n about his experiences.
No use at all for their course.
And he left early.
I think another lecturer had to take on the classes.
I'm guessing there's been a pattern of good references to get rid of him. Let somewhere else have to cope with him. He's had jobs at various places.
I think the one I read about was at Roehampton.
He claims to have a Master's from KCL inter alia. I doubt that.

Here are the comments on Reddit.
I laughed at the student who posted that this Walter Mitty character told the class that he had invented the question mark 😂

www.reddit.com/r/UniUK/comments/1veinaa/can_anyone_comment_on_jason_ardays_teaching/

That long reply from someone he ‘taught’ at Roehampton University (poster called Furry Pig) is astonishing. Except that, in the circs, perhaps it isn’t astonishing at all.

With these preposterous lies there is always the feeling they must be true because people know most claims are open to investigation, therefore they wouldn't risk exposure.
Thank goodness for a free press, and how shameful that Arday to was able involve the police by making claims of harassment against a Times investigative journalist, which were disproved.,

Galaxy

If before this all happened I had been asked who would fall for this, O Brien would have been on the top of the list alongside the Good Law Project, surely Alister Campbell was talen in as well.

Labour MP Clive Lewis fell for his lies too but am not surprised as he is very weird himself.

If before this all happened I had been asked who would fall for this, O Brien would have been on the top of the list alongside the Good Law Project, surely Alister Campbell was talen in as well.

James O’Brien has said he feels “like a mug” for defending Jason Arday over accusations of plagiarism.

The LBC radio presenter said he had a “very, very personal” reaction to Mr Arday’s resignation from the University of Cambridge on Wednesday, having taken his side over the claims.

Primrose53

More revelations today. Wonder how the well known people feel now who signed a letter supporting him? They must realise they had the wool pulled over their eyes.

Walter Mitty characters have to be clever to be able to remember all their fantasies and not be caught out straight away.

They can also be friendly, charming and very convincing.

More revelations today. Wonder how the well known people feel now who signed a letter supporting him? They must realise they had the wool pulled over their eyes.

fancythat

The poor man is ill.
He needs a lot of professional help.

It’s often a fine line isn’t it?
Part of me thinks you’d have to have MH issues to invent all of this and believe you’d get away with it , but then the other part thinks he seems to have consciously lapped up the media attention, the status, the position at Cambridge and presumably the salary to match.
Ill? Who’s to say?