Page 21 | Jason Arday, Cambridge Plagiarist, thread two

Angeruish · 2026-08-08T19:39:38+00:00

We are nearing our 1000-post limit on the original thread: [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5561878-jason-arday-cambridge-plagiarist?reply=153910946 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5561878-jason-arday-cambridge-plagiarist?reply=153910946]] I have now removed the question mark after "plagiarist". I can't believe the sequel will be as good as the original, but you never know...

spannasaurus · 13/08/2026 15:45

pinkdelight · 13/08/2026 15:42

The Swiss, surely!

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I hope you're not denying the existence of the Cottage people

SheldontheWonderSchlong · 13/08/2026 15:46

KnottyAuty · 13/08/2026 11:58

just catching up/marking place.

picking up a couple of points about JA’s early education where a few comments have raised queries:

JA claims diagnoses of GDD and Asperger’s at age 3. Imo those 2 diagnoses are incompatible with each other due to his claims of mutism.
More importantly Asperger’s wasnt a diagnosis until 1993/94 so the NHS wouldn’t have given this in 1988.
In the 1980s/90s he would have had a Statement of SEN, not an EHCP which only came in from around 2014. These were notoriously difficult to obtain but he’d have needed one to attend special school.
JA claims in an interview (possibly C4) that he went to a Special School but a classmate came forward (the one who also mentioned Sunday School on TikTok) to say he attended a mainstream Heathbrook primary. Confirmed by the school on twitter in 2023.
The same primary school contact de-bunks the claim JA made about being mute until 11
He seems to have attended a Stitched Up textiles programme at a Lambeth charity until age 14 but accidentally refers to this years later as “Seven Up” which attracts a lot of negative attention but probably was not actually one of his fabrications?!
He claims he couldn’t read or write prior to 18 but went to a Mainstream Secondary in Wandsworth and left at 16 with 2 GCSEs: PE and Textiles.
Theres a gap 16-18 where he hasn’t claimed any educational activities - is this the football/snooker period?
At 18 he turns up with his mum at Merton College and she persuades Sandro Sandri to let him on a BTEC course “with no qualifications”. It was 2003. Without English GCSE or Functional Skills this must have been one of the lower level BTECs which wouldn’t facilitate access to university. JA claims that Sandri spent hours teaching him to read and write - after which he ends up with a reading age of 3, 9 or 11 depending on which interview you listen to!
He credits Sandri with instilling him with self confidence. I wonder whether this is where he learns how to lie… Because at age 20 he gets into St Marys Uni to study PE & Education. How did this happen without some sort of dishonesty? He can’t have a Level 3 BTEC by this time and he hasn’t got GCSE English/cant have it with the reading ages described when he arrives at uni at age 20….
2005-2008 Undergraduate degree - how did he pass this?!
2008-2009 Masters degree - how did he pass this?
2009-2010 spends 1 year working in St Mary University student union
Around 2010 he gets job at Roehampton as a PE Teacher. It seems that JA finds this all a bit boring and after this the timeline goes berserk and there are multiple overlapping courses and jobs and qualifications which make no sense and Ive no idea how anyone could afford to fund it all…

Has anyone seen a description of how he manage to pass the undergraduate and first masters in the first place?

ETA typo

Edited

Wrt the Stitched Up/Seven Up supposed confusion, doesn’t he actually say that the format was that he was followed up every 7 years? That doesn’t sound likely for a local textiles programme.

My adult son has mild learning disability and autism. He was classed as having global development delay when younger. He has often exasperated me by telling the most ridiculous lie, that even when I say I know he’s lying, he doubles down for a while before finally admitting it. In his case it tends to be because he hasn’t understood the situation, or he’s covering to hide he doesn’t understand something, or sometimes the words just come out and he thinks if he doesn’t stick to the lie he’ll get in trouble. It’s often about the most inconsequential things as well that makes it all the more frustrating!

With Jason Arday, in the clips I’ve seen, I do get a similar vibe off him - almost like he just got in too deep and didn’t know how to backtrack, and didn’t have the intelligence to keep his stories straight and not be too fanciful. Maybe he liked the attention and didn’t want it to stop. However, he’s been facilitated every step of the way, and benefited greatly from it. I just can’t understand where all the ‘adults’ were that should have been questioning all these tall tales!

HydrangeaFig · 13/08/2026 15:47

spannasaurus · 13/08/2026 15:45

I hope you're not denying the existence of the Cottage people

Show quote history

The Catuvellauni. I have just looked it up.

AnonyMumAuDHD · 13/08/2026 16:08

WellQuite · 13/08/2026 15:34

'the original peoples of Swiss Cottage😂

Felt I just HAD to look up who those people were - Romano-British and the Anglo saxons … struggling to work out what the context of that may have been in a conference about race that clearly had no interest in the ethnological origins of ‘peoples who are not non-white’?

prh47bridge · 13/08/2026 16:21

YourAmplePlumPoster · 13/08/2026 15:11

What was BBC "Verify" the one and only purveyors of Truth as they keep telling us doing when they let him loose on the Today programme?

I've seen some people criticising them for this and suggesting the failure to investigate shows political bias, but BBC Verify does not, as far as I can see, investigate claims people make about themselves.

BorneBackCeaselesslyIntoThePas · 13/08/2026 16:22

WellQuite · 13/08/2026 15:34

'the original peoples of Swiss Cottage😂

This is begging to be on a tshirt (perhaps paired with Freedom For Tooting

Lunde · 13/08/2026 16:36

Jason should have watched more Judge Judy

Jason Arday, Cambridge Plagiarist, thread two

WellQuite · 13/08/2026 16:37

Tbh I quite fancy an 'original peoples of Norwich' t-shirt - Boudicca with a spear and a 'don't fuck with me' expression.

OneArtfulUmberSquid · 13/08/2026 16:43

ThisNewZebra · 13/08/2026 14:26

Yet that's exactly what you're doing.

There are numerous narratives saying JA was certainly not non-verbal ASC and GDD till the age of 11 as he wouldn't have been in a mainstream school if he was and when people are allegedly saying they attended school with him and he was very verbal, you're saying well that doesn't mean he lied?

Maybe he lied a bit? and still had ASC and GDD because it could be he had ASC traits that weren't as bad as his complete lies?

What's your point? That he might be a ASC liar and so that makes sense that he lied?

Do you really believe someone had such significant ASC and GDD that they were non-verbal till 11 and illiterate to 18 yet somehow got GCSEs in PE and Textiles without knowing how to read or write?

And less than 20 years later was the youngest black professor ever at Cambridge University?

That's not slight evidence. That's the evidence that JA himself is claiming.

Which is clearly bollocks. People refuting that just have common sense and are not taken in by a con mon.

Plus all the other bollocks this conman has said not related to academia that is proven bollocks.

Weird that you seem to want to support this obvious conman.

Can you give me your bank details? I am an UK based fantastic academic that needs some money to fight all the things in court. Help me, i'm being discriminated against.

Show quote history

No, it's not what I'm doing.

Your 'numerous narratives' can be counted on one hand. What I'm doing is saying that for posters like you who are supposedly appalled at JA's hyperbole/fabulations/clearly troubled relationship with the truth it's hypocritical to exaggerate the 'evidence' about what he was like as a child seeing as it's based on two or three people who aren't even verified as having actually known him saying vague stuff.

His self-narrated account about his childhood development does seem extremely doubtful, but until there's any more evidence - which presumably there will be - then it's illogical to make so much of these scraps.

Weird that you seem to want to support this obvious conman.
No, just interested in the actual truth when it comes out instead of imputing motivations to strangers on the internet.

Why do you even care so much? Man with possible MH issues is a spoofer, institution that wants to display certain credentials uses him to do so without undertaking due diligence. In fact, they repeat a narrative that you describe as 'clearly bollocks'. Man gets deeper into spoofing and is supported further in doing so until suddenly he's not.

Help me, i'm being discriminated against.
Well yes, I'd hope right-minded people wouldn't take on your hyperbole, projections and gleeful exaggeration indiscriminately.

Katey83 · 13/08/2026 16:44

AnonyMumAuDHD · 13/08/2026 16:08

Felt I just HAD to look up who those people were - Romano-British and the Anglo saxons … struggling to work out what the context of that may have been in a conference about race that clearly had no interest in the ethnological origins of ‘peoples who are not non-white’?

Show quote history

There was no relevance, it was a discussion about repatriation/reparative justice in the context of colonialism and the slave trade, broadly conflated. My guess was that the person giving the acknowledgement had zero clue about why land acknowledgements exist, or the history of the area - on the other hand, it did also expose the absolute batshittery and empty thought underpinning the event as a whole.

alexdgr8 · 13/08/2026 16:48

spannasaurus · 13/08/2026 15:45

I hope you're not denying the existence of the Cottage people

Show quote history

Indeed. Even to this day The Cottagers are well known in that area...

alexdgr8 · 13/08/2026 17:01

BorneBackCeaselesslyIntoThePas · 13/08/2026 16:22

This is begging to be on a tshirt (perhaps paired with Freedom For Tooting

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and
Peckham for the Peckish

WellQuite · 13/08/2026 17:06

Woking for the Woke. ✊

Chersfrozenface · 13/08/2026 17:07

alexdgr8 · 13/08/2026 16:48

Indeed. Even to this day The Cottagers are well known in that area...

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Missing the laugh emoji again.

DIY it is. 😂

38thparallel · 13/08/2026 17:13

prh47bridge · Today 10:47
Someone suggested that the Carter Ruck letter may be a fake. If it is, whoever faked it has committed a criminal offence

How did whoever put the letter on social media get hold of it?

Thehorticulturalhussie · 13/08/2026 17:16

WellQuite · 13/08/2026 16:37

Tbh I quite fancy an 'original peoples of Norwich' t-shirt - Boudicca with a spear and a 'don't fuck with me' expression.

Here you go, you just need to get the T-shirt printed.

Thehorticulturalhussie · 13/08/2026 17:18

Thehorticulturalhussie · 13/08/2026 17:16

Here you go, you just need to get the T-shirt printed.

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Apologies, too good an image to resist. I know we’re a bit off topic now but ….. well….

KnottyAuty · 13/08/2026 17:19

SheldontheWonderSchlong · 13/08/2026 15:46

Wrt the Stitched Up/Seven Up supposed confusion, doesn’t he actually say that the format was that he was followed up every 7 years? That doesn’t sound likely for a local textiles programme.

My adult son has mild learning disability and autism. He was classed as having global development delay when younger. He has often exasperated me by telling the most ridiculous lie, that even when I say I know he’s lying, he doubles down for a while before finally admitting it. In his case it tends to be because he hasn’t understood the situation, or he’s covering to hide he doesn’t understand something, or sometimes the words just come out and he thinks if he doesn’t stick to the lie he’ll get in trouble. It’s often about the most inconsequential things as well that makes it all the more frustrating!

With Jason Arday, in the clips I’ve seen, I do get a similar vibe off him - almost like he just got in too deep and didn’t know how to backtrack, and didn’t have the intelligence to keep his stories straight and not be too fanciful. Maybe he liked the attention and didn’t want it to stop. However, he’s been facilitated every step of the way, and benefited greatly from it. I just can’t understand where all the ‘adults’ were that should have been questioning all these tall tales!

Show quote history

Sorry my mistake - he is blatantly making stuff up here - although I suspect there is some muddling of fact and fiction here for plausible deniability:

Bath webinar at 5:28 mentioning Seven Up at 7, 14 and 21 although he doesn't say TV, he just says "programme":

Then this podcast which mentions the Lady Margaret 460 Settlement - when I googled does exist and runs a programme "All Sewn Up". I can't remember now but he does talk in another interview about learning to sew and tailoring. Anyway the podcast episode has been taken down but some genius has copied the MP3 and you can find/download the file here:
https://github.com/moradology/arday-research/blob/main/assets/audio/now-and-men-jason-arday-2022-01-26.mp3

That github contains a whole load of research on Arday and his entire research output... seems to be interested in his DEI research rather than the fantastical back story...

arday-research/assets/audio/now-and-men-jason-arday-2022-01-26.mp3 at main · moradology/arday-research

Contribute to moradology/arday-research development by creating an account on GitHub.

https://github.com/moradology/arday-research/blob/main/assets/audio/now-and-men-jason-arday-2022-01-26.mp3

MrPrettyDamnCosmic · 13/08/2026 17:30

This reply has been hidden

This reply has been hidden until the MNHQ team can have a look at it.

AnonyMumAuDHD · 13/08/2026 17:48

KnottyAuty · 13/08/2026 17:19

Sorry my mistake - he is blatantly making stuff up here - although I suspect there is some muddling of fact and fiction here for plausible deniability:

Bath webinar at 5:28 mentioning Seven Up at 7, 14 and 21 although he doesn't say TV, he just says "programme":

Then this podcast which mentions the Lady Margaret 460 Settlement - when I googled does exist and runs a programme "All Sewn Up". I can't remember now but he does talk in another interview about learning to sew and tailoring. Anyway the podcast episode has been taken down but some genius has copied the MP3 and you can find/download the file here:
https://github.com/moradology/arday-research/blob/main/assets/audio/now-and-men-jason-arday-2022-01-26.mp3

That github contains a whole load of research on Arday and his entire research output... seems to be interested in his DEI research rather than the fantastical back story...

Show quote history

Yes, I read somewhere that he said that there was a local ‘programme’ for local disadvantaged kids from different ethnic groups that his mum had got his brother and him involved in that was called ‘7Up’ - and that he was NOT referencing the BBC programme? I was inclined to believe that and take it as a misunderstanding on our part, but maybe it wasn’t?

Rameneater · 13/08/2026 18:38

OneArtfulUmberSquid · 13/08/2026 16:43

No, it's not what I'm doing.

Your 'numerous narratives' can be counted on one hand. What I'm doing is saying that for posters like you who are supposedly appalled at JA's hyperbole/fabulations/clearly troubled relationship with the truth it's hypocritical to exaggerate the 'evidence' about what he was like as a child seeing as it's based on two or three people who aren't even verified as having actually known him saying vague stuff.

His self-narrated account about his childhood development does seem extremely doubtful, but until there's any more evidence - which presumably there will be - then it's illogical to make so much of these scraps.

Weird that you seem to want to support this obvious conman.
No, just interested in the actual truth when it comes out instead of imputing motivations to strangers on the internet.

Why do you even care so much? Man with possible MH issues is a spoofer, institution that wants to display certain credentials uses him to do so without undertaking due diligence. In fact, they repeat a narrative that you describe as 'clearly bollocks'. Man gets deeper into spoofing and is supported further in doing so until suddenly he's not.

Help me, i'm being discriminated against.
Well yes, I'd hope right-minded people wouldn't take on your hyperbole, projections and gleeful exaggeration indiscriminately.

Show quote history

'Why do you even care so much?' is a dead giveaway for a post trying to minimise legitimate concerns. It also minimises the range of improbable happenings claimed by Arday to be part of his experience and the lack of evidence for any of them.

Id12345 · 13/08/2026 18:39

Where is his mother? Why doesn’t she come forward and validate his background? Childhood?

Lougle · 13/08/2026 18:43

WellQuite · 13/08/2026 14:41

The 'fireside chat' video titled 'We Built This City ..' posted up-thread in which he gives the 'keynote speech' is well worth a watch for a flavour of how he charms and flatters other academics.

He loves them, he's so, so grateful, they're the best etc etc. He says not one word of substance. It's an hour long ramble of buzzwords and popular phrases. Journey, kindness, diversity, authentic self, best that you can be,. Any question produces the same answer (after the obligatory 'hmm, that's a really good question'). It's just the buzzwords in a different order.

The highlight is when he quotes Rod Stewart's lyric 'It's in my heart and in my soul' in response to a question about what drives him.

He spouts gibberish and they absolutely lap it up. It was nauseating to see the fawning.

I'd be fascinated to talk to the people who arranged it and to find out whose idea it was to change the normal format of a keynote lecture into a fireside chat. Professor Fiona Saunders was clearly slightly out of her comfort zone and it certainly didn't seem like it had been her idea.

It makes me wonder if he didn't want to have to write a lecture.

Londonmummy66 · 13/08/2026 18:48

HydrangeaFig · 13/08/2026 15:47

The Catuvellauni. I have just looked it up.

Show quote history

I thought the Trinovantes preceded them?

CrossPurposes · 13/08/2026 19:05

I thought this article in the New Statesman by Pratinav Anil is worth a read.

https://archive.ph/QURZq