Refund Jason Arday's students now, writes James Hanson

It reveals so much about the gullibility of our institutions, the insanity of identity politics, and the soft bigotry of low expectations displayed by too many on the left. If you haven’t been following it closely, I went through every outlandish detail on my LBC show last weekend:

But for all the airtime and column inches devoted to the saga, one key question has remained virtually unasked and certainly completely unanswered: is anyone going to refund Jason Arday’s students? First at Roehampton, then at Cambridge, students who were paying thousands of pounds a year for the privilege were taught utter rubbish by a man whose only legitimate qualification may turn out to be his undergraduate degree in PE.

A former student of Arday’s at Roehampton has written for UnHerd about the experience. Writing under the pseudonym Fiona Brown, she describes how he’d regularly arrive late and leave early. How he’d spend his lectures spouting song lyrics and showing film clips. And how, when asked to justify the below-average grade he gave her, he implied she was a racist who was only complaining due to her ‘white privilege’.

Unsurprisingly, some of his former students at Cambridge (supposedly one of the best universities in the world) are considering appealing their grades, accusing Arday of ‘inadequate’ supervision, which led to lower marks than they were expecting. They also claim to have been ‘deceived about the nature of their education’. If their requests are denied, their appeals could result in legal action against the university.

Frankly, both Cambridge and Roehampton should pre-empt all this by immediately taking the following three steps. Firstly, by issuing a full, unqualified apology for appointing someone so transparently unqualified - and for their refusal to engage seriously with the plagiarism allegations against him until it was much too late. Secondly, they should implement reforms to ensure such a charlatan can never con their way into a prestigious professorship ever again. And thirdly, they should refund the tuition fees of Arday’s students in full - and offer to pay off their remaining debt.

If that sounds a bit too pricey for them, perhaps they can ask their now former employee to launch one of his much-fabled fundraising drives to cover the bill? Maybe Arday could run 600 miles in six days again? Or perhaps he could donate some of the £1.4million advance he claims to have received for his forthcoming memoir?

Frankly, I couldn’t give a damn if Cambridge has to sell off Jesus College to compensate Arday’s students. A precedent must be set that elite institutions cannot show such wanton disregard towards those they are supposed to be educating.

Refund Jason Arday’s students - in full - and do it now.

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Listen to James Hanson on LBC on weekends between 4 and 7am.

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