Former Cambridge professor Jason Arday, suspected of plagiarism, found dead

Jason Arday, a former University of Cambridge professor who resigned last week amid plagiarism allegations he denied, was found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon, BBC News reported.

Emergency services said a man was found "unresponsive" at the address. The Metropolitan Police said officers had been called by the London Ambulance Service and that his death was being treated as unexpected but was not believed to be suspicious. Arday’s family said they were "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son" and said a "campaign of misinformation" had been too much for him.

Cambridge vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice said the university was "desperately saddened" and offered sympathies to Arday’s family and friends. Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was "deeply shocked and saddened" and urged people to "remember there are real people with loved ones involved".

Arday, 41, had resigned as Cambridge professor of sociology of education after allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements. He denied plagiarism but admitted errors in his work. The row began after Nathan Cofnas, described as a self-defined "race realist" who was sacked from a Cambridge role in 2024, said he had found numerous instances of plagiarism in Arday’s work.

Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday his PhD in 2015, investigated claims concerning his thesis and some journal publications and concluded that he had not plagiarised work. Cambridge later announced an independent investigation into his appointment, to be carried out by senior academics from within and beyond the university. Glasgow University also announced a review into Arday’s previous academic work.

Arday said last week that scrutiny had brought "an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack" and that the "personal cost" had become "too great". He said some errors in early academic work arose because of his autism and his reliance on mimicry to make sense of information. Arday had worked as a PE teacher before academic posts at Durham University, Glasgow and Cambridge, where his 2023 appointment at 37 as the university’s youngest ever black professor was hailed as a progressive moment.