The Jason Arday scandal

[Ilikesundays]

To think that Cambridge University’s reputation has been shot to pieces by the revelations about ex-professor Jason Arday?

No way. Cambridge is too big to be rocked by one guy.

No theyre fine

Jason, imo, took 'exaggerate on your cv' far too literally bless him.

Hes done right by resigning and ive no doubt he was targeted due to racism. That said, the response should've been to properly check the claims a lot sooner.

Bless him? He's a fraudster, who lied his way through his career and then used racism to silence people. Well done for falling for it.

No he was caught by lying?

I doubt applications will be down as a result.

Let’s not forget setting the police on a Times journalist for a 4 month investigation (Sir Mark Rowley has belatedly admitted the Met should never have been involved) and setting a defamation law firm on a fellow academic.

I'm sure Cambridge will survive but it does make the people who appointed him seem as if they valued diversity over academic rigour which isn't a good look at such a prestigious institution.

This is going to silence a large portion of people, who would be jumping all over this if Arday were white. It's a hot potato and journalists being threatened by police for investigating plagiarism? Once again, the police have invited scrutiny in their dealings involving race.

Bless him?

He’s a career liar and a fraud.

It’s not racist to have noticed this.

Oxford. Oxbridge is reaping what it sows. What a great example to be setting children who are told study pays off.

My dibling is in top tier academia this nonsense is rife in soft subjects...so on one hand im sure there are quarters who are happy to be tearing down a black man.

On the other hand... he basically make "overcoming" his whole personality (which lets be real makes you a bit of a target) and not only did he plagiarise he is a pathological liar who made a tonne of unfounded claims

I wouldn't say shot to pieces but I do think Cambridge comes out of this looking awful.
the inability to critically and dispassionately rrview the original claims.. the doubling down. Its all so embarrassing.
there are other examples but in general the uk education system seems hell bent on dragging itself closer to mediocrity each year imo.

Separately - the guy have Elizabeth Holmes "crazy eyes' and I actually recalled joking with diblijg this guy was a total fantasist with his bullshit "overcoming" story... (i worked at a faang company at the time and everyone had some bulkshit adversity tale vs. "My family were nice i was studied hard im not that special"

I think you will find this is the same in lots of universities. Would you actually like to be the person who says I don’t think much to him?
You would immediately be accused of being racist by the middle class lefties in charge and hounded out of your job. So people keep quiet out of fear.

If anything they might improve.

Bless him? A fraudster and pathological liar who set the police on a journalist who tried to expose him? Do me a favour.

The whole story is so infuriating. He has clearly lied about so many things, constantly and in many cases so obviously that it's clear hes a fantasist. Yet this was overlooked by several universities. As a result not only has he put all Black academics under scrutiny of whether they have had less scrutiny than others to get to where they are but yet again used ' autism' as a reason for not understanding what plagiarism and lying is, so implying people with autism can't really be trusted to be academics either.

Obtaining a pecuniary advantage by fraud and deceit -a criminal offence.

Were his certificates, awards and qualifications forged or false documents - criminal offence.

Making false claims of racism - that's wrong too.

How many successful, highly educated (legitimate) black academics under scrutiny due the the mans criminal acts?

The "admiral" who dressed in a uniform to lay a wreath was prosecuted for far less of an offence.

This is really sad. I am an autistic academic and looked up to him to what can be achieved. To see that it was all lies has shaken me.

I read somewhere that the true measure of equality was when underperforming women/ POC were promoted above their ability.

i have of course seen many white males promoted above their level of competence. I guess equality means that we don’t just see it happening for them.

The lack of scrutiny into the stories by the employers and the bizarre rationale given (had to sign an NDA for the organisation he was fundraising for!?) just shows how will fully blind they were.

Just employ people who have the proven qualifications/credentials/ experience and perform your due diligence!

I had not heard of him before but cannot believe anyone believed his claims. He looks like a fantasist to me.

Basically he's Jay from the inbetweeners. I bet he's got a video at home of him jumping 12 buses on a motorbike on Blue Peter.

Sorry 'signed a non disclosure agreement not to name the people' he raised money with. Ran 300 miles in 6 days. Couldn't read until he was 18. Used mimicry to overcome his issues...If Jay had said any of those it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch.

And Cambridge never checked any of that? And two tier policing reared its ugly head again.

I think I'd want my money back if I was one of the students who'd been 'taught' by him.

lol. Cambridge’s reputation is completely untouched. This will be forgotten about in 6 months.

Yes, I imagine you would feel tainted.

The 'bless him' was clearly tongue in cheek.