Jason Arday

Jason Arday
Arday in 2020
Born	Jason A. K. Arday 1985 or 1986 (age 40–41)
Academic background
Education	St Mary's University, Twickenham (BA, MA) Liverpool John Moores University (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
Website	faculty.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/arday

Jason A. K. Arday FRSA (born 1985 or 1986) is a British academic. He was appointed Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge in 2023, and was one of the youngest black professors in the United Kingdom. After being accused of plagiarism and biographical fabrication, Arday resigned from his posts at Cambridge in August 2026.

Early life and education

Jason A. K. Arday was born in 1985 or 1986 to Ghanaian parents, the third of four brothers, and grew up in Clapham, South London. His mother was a mental health nurse and his father a chef. Arday was diagnosed with autism, global developmental delay and dyslexia. He was non-verbal until the age of 11 and could not read or write until he was 18. 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 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 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in education at Liverpool John Moores University. He said he had a benign brain tumour removed weeks before his viva voce exam which caused memory loss. His doctoral thesis, "An Exploration of Peer-Mentoring among Student Teachers' [sic] to Inform Reflective Practice within the Context of Action Research", was completed in 2015. His PhD supervisor was 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 claimed to have been a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, but this claim was later found to be false as he was only an adjunct professor. Additionally, he claimed to have been a visiting professor at the University of Glasgow and Ohio State University but both institutions denied he ever held these roles. In 2021 he was appointed Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow. In March 2023, the University of Cambridge announced his appointment as Professor of Sociology of Education making him the youngest black professor ever appointed at the university. Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton, chaired the appointment board for the Professorship. Arday was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He resigned on 5 August 2026.

Honorary degrees

Arday was awarded an honorary doctorate from Anglia Ruskin University and Southampton Solent University in 2023 and St Mary's University and the University of Westminster in 2024.

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.

Also in 2012, he was a bearer of the Olympic Torch.

Allegations of plagiarism and false biographical details

In July 2026, allegations of plagiarism were initially made public in a Substack post by Nathan Cofnas, a Cambridge alumnus, researcher, and self-described "race realist". Cofnas's blog post was followed by a report by The Daily Telegraph, which alleged that a number of Arday's works, notably his 2015 PhD thesis, contained similar or identical passages to other academic works. 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 receiving a legal letter from Carter-Ruck on Arday's behalf, with the Times Higher Education reporter also being investigated by the police over the issue, who requested that the reporter not contact Arday. Retraction Watch also suggested that corrections made in 2023 to a previously published paper by Arday suggested other examples of plagiarism.

Following allegations of plagiarism, several questions were raised about Arday's biographical claims. Claims made by Arday about running 600 miles in six days (a near world record), having personally raised "£5.5m for over 80 charities", and having been featured on the documentary series Seven Up! as a seven-year-old were challenged by publications. Arday subsequently changed the first two of these as having been 600 miles in twelve days and that the fundraising was done as "part of a syndicate of about 100 people". Regarding Seven Up!, he stated that he had been referring to a community initiative and not the television series. 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. It was further reported that Arday had for several years claimed to have authored a book titled Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse, which had supposedly been published by Palgrave Macmillan. It had in fact been abandoned by the publisher years prior and never released.

Claims made about Arday having held a number of visiting professorship positions were also disputed, with the University of Glasgow and Ohio State University refuting claims that he had held visiting professorship roles at all, while Nelson Mandela University instead stated that he had only ever been a temporary adjunct professor (a more junior position) prior to November 2025 on a fixed basis. Arday additionally claimed that, after he was appointed at Cambridge, he had been assaulted, threatened by a masked man with a knife twice at the university, and that a pig's head was sent to his parents' home that was investigated by the police. The Guardian found no evidence of these claims, with the Metropolitan Police stating no investigation had taken place. When this statement was put to Arday, he stood by his allegations and stated "To be honest with you, I thought you'd just believe me."

Responses to the initial allegations and subsequent reporting drew a variety of responses. 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 at two universities in Nottingham, 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 EDI." Campaigning organisation the Good Law Project published an open letter signed by more than 10,000 supporters, including Simon Woolley, 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.

The University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University, where Arday obtained his PhD, published statements defending him. The University of Cambridge however subsequently announced it had "begun an investigation following new information about Prof Arday’s academic qualifications and honorary appointments". 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.

After the July 2026 allegations, Arday reported a journalist covering the allegations to the Metropolitan Police for harassment; the case was investigated and closed with no action taken. 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".

Shortly following the announcement of investigations by the University of Cambridge and Jesus College, Arday resigned from his professorship on 5 August 2026. He said that this should not be "mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me".

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.

External links

• Official website
• Jason Arday at IMDb