Jason Arday

Jason Arday
Born	1985 (age 40–41)
Academic background
Education	St Mary's University, Twickenham (BA, MA) Liverpool John Moores University (MEd, PhD)
Thesis	An Exploration of Peer-Mentoring among Student Teachers' to Inform Reflective Practice within the Context of Action Research (2015)
Academic work
Discipline	Education
Sub-discipline	sociology of education sociology of race and ethnic relations social stratification social mobility
Institutions	University of Roehampton Durham University University of Glasgow University of Cambridge

Jason Arday FRSA (born 1985) is a British academic, currently Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge.

Early life and education

He was born to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Clapham, South London. Arday was diagnosed with autism, global developmental delay and dyslexia. He was non-verbal until the age of 11. He is also epileptic.

Arday undertook his undergraduate degree in education studies with physical education at St Mary's University, Twickenham, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree validated by the University of Surrey in 2008. He then spent a year as the elected athletics president at St Mary's Students' Union. He remained to complete a Master of Arts (MA) degree in education and pedagogy, and then undertook a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the Institute of Education. He completed his master's degree in Education (MEd) at Liverpool John Moores University, where he was also awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in education. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (fHEA). His doctoral thesis was titled "An Exploration of Peer-Mentoring among Student Teachers' [sic] to Inform Reflective Practice within the Context of Action Research", and was completed in 2015. His PhD supervisor was Prof Phil Vickerman of Liverpool John Moores University.

Academic career

Early career

In 2017, Arday was paired with MP and Shadow Minister for Mental Health Rosena Allin-Khan through the Operation Black Vote MP Shadowing Scheme.

Arday has conducted research into Black students' experiences across universities and has argued for greater recognition of Black British history in the school curriculum.

Appointments

Arday has held academic posts at the University of Roehampton, Durham University and the University of Glasgow. He is also a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. In 2021 he was appointed Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow. At the time, press coverage described him as one of the youngest professors in Britain and the youngest Black professor in the UK. In March 2023, the University of Cambridge announced his appointment as Professor of Sociology of Education. Reports in the national media highlighted him as one of the youngest people to hold a professorship at Cambridge.

Fundraising and charity work

In 2010, the Richmond and Twickenham Times reported that Arday ran 30 marathons in 35 days to raise money for Shelter and the Shooting Star Children's Hospices. In 2012 he said that he had an epileptic seizure on the 20th day causing a hairline fracture in his fibula. In his 2026 biography he described the fracture causing his leg to swell to twice its normal size. His fundraising activities led to his selection as a torch bearer for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In 2023, Anglia Ruskin University awarded Arday an honorary doctorate.

Allegations of plagiarism and false biographical claims

In 2026, Arday was publicly accused of academic plagiarism and false biographical claims. The allegations first were made public in a Substack post by Nathan Cofnas, a philosopher of biology and self-described "race realist". Cofnas's blog post was followed by a report by The Daily Telegraph, which alleged that "Prof Arday's published works, including his PhD thesis, contain passages that are remarkably similar – and in some cases identical – to other academic papers, without proper attribution." For example, it was found that his doctoral thesis at Liverpool John Moores University had "dozens of passages .... that were taken nearly verbatim from the 2009 dissertation of Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a reader at Brunel University of London". (Zwozdiak-Myers's dissertation was cited in Arday's thesis, but the passages in question lacked attribution or quotation marks.) Questions were also raised about several of his biographical claims, with the Telegraph noting that a claim of having run 600 miles in six days was nearly equivalent to that of the world record in ultra-distance running. This claim was later changed to 600 miles in 12 days.

Retraction Watch later reported that Times Higher Education had planned to report upon the allegations in September 2025, but that the article was cancelled after "Arday enlisted Carter-Ruck, one of the United Kingdom's leading defamation law firms, to send Times Higher Education a letter". After the July 2026 allegations, Arday reported a journalist covering the allegations to the Metropolitan Police for harassment; the case was investigated and closed.

Long before the public allegations, in 2023, a 2018 paper by Arday published in Social Sciences was corrected, nominally to add additional citations to make "clear where ideas were adapted from past research", although undisclosed changes were also made to several apparent quotations from subject interviews, which Retraction Watch suggested in the original version had been plagiarised from subjects interviewed in a 2016 paper by Anjum Memon in BMJ Open.

The University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University, where Arday obtained his PhD, published statements regarding the allegations against him. The University of Cambridge said that "the allegations of plagiarism regarding his thesis and journal publications have been thoroughly investigated by the relevant institution and the journals in question. Professor Arday has been cleared by those investigations of any wrongdoing." The University of Cambridge went on to claim that the allegations were part of a "vile campaign to undermine his credibility". David Sanders, a biochemist at Purdue University who writes for Times Higher Education about scientific misconduct and was consulted by them for their unpublished report, stated "There is no question that there is extensive plagiarism". David Harris, professor emeritus at Plymouth Marjon University, said that Arday's works "seem to display indications of serious plagiarism".

Robert Dingwall, an emeritus professor of social sciences, recommended an impartial investigation, stating: "In the current climate, it is difficult to comment on allegations of plagiarism against a prominent minority scholar without seeming to take sides on [diversity, equity, and inclusion]. From what I have seen, there certainly appears to be a prima facie case here. It may be difficult to find a suitably impartial adjudicator but, as a matter of fairness to all parties, the evidence should be rigorously examined and the subject invited to provide a detailed response, rather than being the victim of continuing smears and innuendos. This is a moment when universities in general, and sociologists in particular, must be willing to show that they are capable of living by their own standards of professional integrity."

Campaigning organisation the Good Law Project published an open letter signed by more than 10,000 supporters, including Simon Woolley, Baron Woolley of Woodford, Sonita Alleyne, Ijeoma Uchegbu, actor Colin Salmon, and politicians such as Zack Polanski stating that "Entirely false allegations of plagiarism were made against Professor Arday" and that "right-wing media have attempted to smear Professor Arday's reputation and undermine his career." Subsequent reporting noted that Ijeoma Uchegbu's name was removed as of 3 August.

Arday's publishers Simon & Schuster and Routledge confirmed that these allegations had not affected their plans to launch his memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, on 27 August 2026.

In an interview with The Times, Arday admitted that he had made errors in his dissertation and early academic work, but attributed them to lacking supervision and support for his autism and "complex learning disabilities". He further stated that he was "not a liar". He clarified that the £5.5 million he claimed he raised for charity was raised as "part of a syndicate of about 100 people". He declined to identify members of the syndicate to The Guardian, citing non-disclosure agreements.

Arday said that after he was appointed at Cambridge, he had been assaulted, threatened by a masked man twice at the university and a pig's head was sent to his parents' home that was investigated by the police. The Guardian found no corroborating evidence of these claims. The Metropolitan Police said no such investigation into the pig's head had taken place, and the south London butchers that Arday said police had questioned told The Guardian that no officers had visited regarding the pig. When confronted about the apparent contradiction, Arday told The Guardian, "To be honest with you, I thought you'd just believe me," and stood by his allegations. On 2 August 2026, the Telegraph reported on claims Arday made in October 2022 to the University of Bath's Race Equality Taskforce of being on the television programme Seven Up, which he could not have appeared on as the series began in 1964, 21 years before he was born; a BBC spin-off, titled "Up: Millennium Generation", began in 2000, also starring 7-year-olds, Arday was 15 at this time, with the BBC confirming that Arday was not involved.

On 3 August 2026, Scottish newspaper The Herald reported that the the University of Glasgow stated that Arday had never held a visiting professorship at their University in contradiction of Arday's biography on the University of Cambridge's website. It was also reported in The Daily Telegraph that Arday had previously made claims of working on projects abroad for the charity WaterAid, with the charity replying to enquiries that it did not send volunteers abroad.

Selected publications

• Arday, J. (2019). Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0367335402.
• Arday, J. (2020). "Fighting the Tide: Understanding the difficulties facing Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) doctoral students pursuing a career in academia". Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(10), 972–979. doi:10.1080/00131857.2020.1777640.
• Arday, J. (2020). The Black Curriculum: Black British History in the National Curriculum Report. London: The Black Curriculum.
• Arday, J. (2021). "No One Can See Me Cry: Understanding mental health issues for Black and minority ethnic staff in higher education". Higher Education, 83(1), 79–102. doi:10.1007/s10734-020-00636-w.
• Arday, J.; Belluigi, D. Z.; Thomas, D. (2021). "Attempting to Break the Chain: Reimagining inclusive pedagogy and decolonising the curriculum within the academy". Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(3), 298–313. doi:10.1080/00131857.2020.1773257.