Jason Arday plagiarism row: What was the Cambridge professor accused of before his sudden death?

Former Cambridge University scholar Jason Arday, who passed away at the age of 41, was accused of plagiarism before his sudden death. Arday, who grew up in a working-class part of South London and faced learning difficulties early in life, built a successful academic career focused on race and education. He became Cambridge's youngest Black professor in 2023 when he took up an established chair of education at Jesus College.

The controversy surrounding Arday began last month when a blog post accused him of plagiarizing parts of his dissertation and exaggerating parts of his personal story. An analysis found over 100 passages in his PhD similar to another thesis by a Brunel University student. Arday also faced criticism over his claims about his charity work and endurance runs, which critics said were exaggerated.

Despite these allegations, Arday resigned from Cambridge last week, a week before his memoir was due to be published. His family stated that he had been subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse since joining Cambridge, which was too much for him.