Jason Arday dead

[ThisWiseRobin]

Just putting this out there, but just heared.A sad end to a whole sorry mess.

You have no evidence that it’s one example of many (and indeed many ‘what’? Areas of academic enquiry you’re passing judgement on without, I’d guess, knowing anything about them or having read any of the relevant literature?) The Warren Buffet anecdote seems to be a secondhand report of one student’s recollection. I don’t thinks it’s UK HE that’s lacking rigorous enquiry here 😆

Excellent analogy!

You’re right I don’t know about that aspect for sure, but we should not discount someone’s words because they have a platform (YouTube). There is definitely significant doubt about that aspect and on balance given how improbable it is that someone non verbal until adulthood could achieve a phd, become really good at self promotion and a very proficient liar I think it’s more likely that was another of his lies than not.

When this story first broke, lots of people stepped up publicly to support Arday as he was the victim of a racist campaign to discredit him and his academic achievements (this was true, there was a racist campaign, and he had been cleared of plagiarism after two investigations).

However, many people have since quietly rowed back on that support when it subsequently became clear that there were genuine, non-racist concerns about his academic work and also it became increasingly obvious that his heartwarming backstory of overcoming severe adversity, and many of his listed achievements weren’t actually true. In addition, police and lawyers had been used to shut down investigations into him.

’Racist campaign against young black professor’ became a question about how so many people fell for his tall tales, including some of the brightest minds in the country, and how someone so woefully unqualified reached one of the highest ranks in one of the most elite academic institutions in the world. The publishing of his incredible memoir this week merely gave more lies to fuel the media interest (his memoir should not have been published and the publishers need to reflect on this).

It’s clear from some of the comments being made on this thread that some people read no further than ‘racist campaign’ and are assuming that this is all it ever was. It was that, but also it very much wasn’t.

I think its possible he was selectivley mute which is why there are differing accounts
Its very diffrent to being non verbal but some people do use the terms interchangeably
I know a lot of non / minimally verbal teens including my own i would be astonished if one of them went on to become a professor.

Arday claimed he said his first word at 11 and it was ‘hello’. He did not claim to be selectively mute.

I know
Im just trying to offer a theory as too differeing accounts of him being non verbsl or not
Personslly i dont think he was.

Needs repeating

People dont like con artists. Of any colour.

once more - we do not agree. This is fine. It does not give you the right to expect or demand answers.

As it happens - my answer is there:
"I cannot peer evaluate his work - no my discipline."

Asking increasingly pointed questions does not create an obligation for me to provide an opinion on matters I have explicitly said I am not qualified to judge.

Totally agree. Brilliant post.

So pleased this thread is still allowed up, as it's thought-provoking to read all the different angles on this. Plagiarism, academic rigour, tokenism, bullying and honesty are all important issues.

And racism of course.

Nick Leeson was criminally convicted after trial and imprisoned. Hannah Moore was found guilty of misconduct by regulatory authorities and sanctioned following a lengthy investigation. These cases are clearly different to JA who has not, yet, faced any formal enquiry into the facts. Everyone is purely speculating based on press reports.

That aspect is somewhat baffling to me. I don't know what the absolute truth is and it's true that autistic people are not identikit. My DS was diagnosed with GDD at 3, ADHD at 5 then autism at 13.

He was not non verbal but his speech and language development was poor. It's better now as a young adult but he's not always easy to understand. Not so much because he can't physically speak words, he can, but his language comprehension is significantly lacking compared to peers. So he will use words in an inappropriate context and his pronunciation can be quite poor. This also works the other way in that he struggles often to understand others so needs clear and simple language when giving instruction or explaining something.

He was referred for speech and language therapy at primary school but maybe got around 5 or 6 sessions at the most and this was a time when there was more awareness around autism than when JA grew up.

Like Arday he left school with a couple of low qualification GCSEs and has since done some SEN college courses focused on work and life skills. He's trying very hard to get a job at the moment but so far can't even secure things like a kitchen job in a pub.

I can't imagine any path right now that would lead him into academic study of any sort. Stories such as Arday's, when taken on face value, do make you question as a parent whether you didn't do enough, weren't supportive enough and didn't believe in your child enough.

Sure. Selective mutism would explain others accounts of his childhood but I think it is worth making clear that it wouldn’t explain his own account.

There are lots of people who are claiming ‘racist witch hunt’ who have been trying to find ways of getting Arday off the hook to make it purely about racism (cleared of plagiarism, only speculation that he has lied etc).

Arday has told demonstrable and evidenced lies which cast doubt on all incredible claims he has made about his life

Arday’s academic work contains clear evidence of having been lifted from other people’s work and is of low quality, yet he was a high ranking professor at Cambridge and cleared of plagiarism.

Given these things, people really need to back off from accusing other people of racism merely for thinking this worthy of discussion.

(I am not aiming this post at you @x2boys, it’s not about you in the slightest, it’s just a follow on from your post to explain why I thought it worth clarifying the selective mutism thing).

Well if students complain all v the v time and ‘no one’s complained about him’ you have to wonder why…
Fear of being called racist?
We all know how that goes…

“Would you care to answer?” is a polite invitation to further discussion, not a demand or an expectation.

As it happens - my answer is there:
"I cannot peer evaluate his work - no my discipline."

You do not need to be an expert in the same discipline to know that someone who plagiarises and makes up quotes for their research is not genuinely interested in and applied to increasing knowledge in their subject area. This is obvious and common sense and it’s a bit shocking you feel unable to admit that it is.

For clarity - please feel no obligation to respond to this message.

I think you’re tying yourself in knots here!

Well she's got to deal with that sickly sweet gesture now. Instead of keeping it all low key, she had to parade her virtue and it's now blown up in her face. Treating a fellow academic like a pet, tells me everything about her weak character.

It was nauseating saying they were very lucky to have him .

That's the kind of language that does huge damage for two reasons: firstly, she is reducing his value based on his race and secondly, it affects the morale of other colleagues when they feel people are being singled out for recognition. All of this is not conducive to fostering healthy teaching and learning. In short, she's a fucking idiot.

If you mean because you haven’t looked at his work, fair enough.

If you mean because it’s all too finely-balanced, I’d suggest this is an example of academia making you stupider.

This isn’t like declining to appraise a Ming vase because you specialise in Qing.

This is like claiming you couldn’t spot if it were a teapot because teapots is someone else’s department.

The irony of you literally copying and pasting someone else’s writing and offering zero point of your own…

Autistic people often feel and respond to pain differently from other people. Lucy Bronze, who is also autistic, played the entire Euros in 2025 with a broken leg. To be sure he lied about running marathons with a broken leg, you need more evidence.

Some of his childhood peers claim he was verbal, some claim he was non-verbal. To be sure he lied about that, you need more evidence.

He claimed to have authored the book Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse. It was never published, but does that mean he didn't write it?

Just a few examples to think about.

Do you feel qualified then to comment on the experiences of racially minoritised people in the classroom, as students or teachers? If this is not your field, probably not. It’s pretty normal academic courtesy to say ‘not my field’, and not at all like refusing to name a teapot.

He claimed his leg was twice its normal size when running the marathons while it was broken yet photographic evidence shows him completing his marathons with two perfectly normal legs.

There is video evidence of him claiming to have a masters in psychodynamic practices from Birkbeck and Birkbeck say they have no record of him as a student.

He has definitely told lies.