Who is Jason Arday? Former professor under fire

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Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, has taken his name off a Good Law Project support campaign, which has accused the right-wing press of smearing the professor with false accusations.

Instead, Mr Kebede has called for a "fair and transparent" investigation into Arday, who stands accused of making up previous job posts and copying work.

He has also been accused by students over his teaching style, with one complainant saying he had told her to check her "white privilege" after his marking was questioned.

The union said: “Daniel Kebede fundamentally believes that where questions are raised about an individual's professional conduct, that person has a right to due process.

“[He] signed the statement on the information provided to him at the time.

“In light of the new information that has since emerged, he would have hoped that the authors of the statement would have presented a different statement. One appealing for a fair and transparent investigation.”

Here is what has happened so far.

Read also: Jason Arday ‘accused student of white privilege’ after she questioned her mark

Who is Professor Jason Arday?

Professor Jason Arday, 41, was, until last week, a professor at Cambridge University, where he taught sociology of education from 2023.

He previously taught at Leeds Beckett University, the University of Roehampton, and the University of Durham before becoming, age 38, the youngest black professor in Cambridge's history.

Born to Ghanaian parents, Arday has said that he could not read or write until he was 18, having been non-verbal until the age of 11.

Arday became well known for his studies of critical race theory, having gained a PhD in 2015 from Liverpool John Moores University.

He has also claimed to have run 30 marathons in 35 days for charity, and he ran with the Olympic Torch as part of the procession ahead of the London 2012 Games.

Arday is married to Debbie McKenzie and has two children.

Read also: Cambridge students demand to have grades reviewed after professor resigns amid plagiarism row

What has Professor Jason Arday been accused of?

Arday quit as a professor at the University of Cambridge, and a tour to promote his memoir, which he was paid a reported £1.4m to write, has also been cancelled after accusations surfaced last week.

According to reports in the media, Arday has been accused of:

• Making up roles he has held in academia,
• Plagiarising his PhD thesis,
• Providing "inadequate" supervision as a professor,
• Lying about running 600 miles in six days to raise £5.5m for charity.

Richard Dawkins had previously criticised Arday's thesis for its grammatical errors, including a misuse of an apostrophe in the title itself: "An Exploration of Peer-Mentoring among Student Teachers' [sic] to Inform Reflective Practice within the Context of Action Research".

One student said that she had accused him of being racist and that he would "ramble" in his lectures, without providing evidence, while others have asked the University of Cambridge to have their papers marked again.

After being asked for feedback on her score, the complainant said: "I now saw a side of him I’d never seen before – angry, but also scared. Arday implied that I was racist, and said that the only reason I wasn’t happy with 70 per cent was due to my ‘white privilege’.”

Three academics have joined National Education Union secretary Daniel Kebede in asking for their names to be removed.

Sonita Alleyne, the first woman to head up Jesus College, where Mr Arday was employed, Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen, a Cambridge professor of developmental psychopathology, and Ricardo Sabates Aysa, an education and international development expert, all took their names off a Good Law Project petition.

The University of Cambridge said it had launched an inquiry.

Around 18,000 have signed a Good Law Project petition set up to defend the professor.

It accuses the right-wing media of making "entirely false allegations of plagiarism" to smear his work.

What will Professor Jason Arday do now?

An investigation at Liverpool John Moores University cleared Prof Arday of wrongdoing, but he has stepped back for the time being as other probes continue.

Arday said he had faced “an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack” since taking up the role.

“While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

“For my own wellbeing, for my family, and for those who have stood by me throughout this difficult period, I have concluded that the only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away.”

His memoir, Great And Unfortunate Things, is still due to be published by Simon & Schuster later this month, although his book tour to promote it has been cancelled.

The events have sparked a wider race row, with Green Party leader Zack Polanski stating that people of colour are "held to a higher standard".

Kehinde Andrews, who was until recently professor of black studies at Birmingham City University, told Sky News: “No one’s handing out favours to black people in higher education, and that idea is deeply dangerous and deeply racist.

“There is a whole campaign to get more black professors in, but the experiences that we have tend to be horrendous and it does put people off from trying to even get into these places in the first place.”