Jason Arday, Cambridge Plagiarist, thread two

[Angeruish]

We are nearing our 1000-post limit on the original thread:
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...

I wondered that too Smallprint and I wondered which department appointed him and it was Education rather than Sociology (and yes I suspect standards are lower in Education as well). Surprised at the college but I guess they were so excited at the prospect of a young, personable black professor they didn’t stop to think. I’ve seen a few video clips of JA and he’s very charming.

(Just to explain the Oxford/Cambridge system has separate appointments to specialist departments - Economics, English, Physics whatever and to Colleges so JA will have charmed his way through two sets of recruitment processes).

I was once involved, as an academic with line managing responsibilities, in recruiting and interviewing and hiring at a UK university. We had a candidate who ticked all the boxes but we felt the qualifications presented were, let’s say, dodgy. From an overseas university and we were convinced were forgeries we checked with HR …. told us it was not our job to check the veracity of qualifications. It was just our job to photocopy them And put them on file but then it appears it was not their job to check either.🤷‍♀️ We did manage to not appoint that person.

This was Over 10 years ago So I thought systems Might be a bit smarter now, but it looks like they’re not. If this is typical, then there is a real problem still in academia

https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/cambridge-careers-education-outreach-policy

this is the student story associated with the Cambridge degree in education and its pretty obvious what the ethos of the department is.

I can see how Jason was a dream come true superficially for the department.

Add to that list:

Responding to SA People, Nelson Mandela University media manager Zandile Ngwendu clarified Arday’s actual standing at the institution.

“Jason Arday currently has no formal affiliation with Nelson Mandela University. He served as an adjunct professor at the University on a fixed-term association that concluded in November 2025.”

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/nelson-mandela-university-clarifies-link-to-disgraced-cambridge-academic-jason-arday/ar-AA29x5hG

This is one of the confusing and infuriating things about the situation. Arday is, as much as he could claim that, a scholar of education. He's not a sociologist. Yet because of his 'sociology of education' professional title, he's been called a sociologist and has called himself one. It all muddies the waters further.

I suspect this is going to become easier with AI being used instead of real people. We have seen how women are suffering when applying for jobs already due to the data suggesting men are "better" because they earn more (in AI data world). Not being able to check if a scanned certificate is a fake will be the next issue.

Is it a business address for the Univ Durham or one of it's departments?
Or an associated facility.^^

On that, a link to Arday buttering up O'Brien in a 2023 podcast.

https://nitter.net/PatrickChristys/status/2086057549640438195#m

"Successful liars succeed by telling people what they want to hear."

Possibly. Google Chancery Court, Durham; it's advertised as office space.

That’s interesting. I wonder if there’s anyway to actually check with GDPR now.

I say that because when I worked in practice, one of our colleagues produced their degree certificate (which the company had paid for her fees part time over 5 years!).

It looked legit and no one blinked an eyelid. They had also had time off, talked about their degree etc for years so it was expected for them to pass.

Owner picked up the certificate at some point and just happened to clock the signature - it was the old dean who they knew personally so happened to know they resigned a year earlier.

That was it. The only way they knew. A small detail error. In every other way it looked completely legit. So there must be companies who produce these.

It's the home of the British Sociological Association: https://www.britsoc.co.uk/about/latest-news/2018/january/the-bsa-has-moved/

Nope, definitely the dark side of the moon. At the age of 4 years and 5 months. How can you have forgotten that frankly brilliant telescopic ladder that he invented that reached from the top of Everest and bent around in an arc at the end? Honestly, engineering masterpiece.

If only some brave soul had initially said to Arday, "You're talking out of Uranus," all of this could've been avoided.

I think a lot of his angst originated from that racist decision to appoint Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.....he was born for the role.

He was also deaf in one ear (still is I guess!) according to an old article I was reading.

We had Rachel from accounts, now we have got Jason from training.

The right side of history got us here

https://nitter.net/AjaTheEmpress/status/2085803321470648551#m

More unravelling of his story:

Cambridge 'plagiarism' prof claimed to receive 'hundreds of thousands' of messages for appointment

mol.im/a/16036353

I am very puzzled as to how Jason fooled Prof Baron-Cohen who is a professor of autism

Taken from the last thread, but I suspect, @38thparallel, that the answers to this would reveal issues which the armchair diagnosticians of autism/ADHD wouldn't appreciate

My worry is Cambridge will word salad their way out of this

I expect they'll have little choice, @Supersimkin7, if the alternative is to honestly address how it all came to happen
Those so captured by whatever the current rightthink happens to be rarely appreciate having it questioned, so really all they can do is keep their heads down and look for the next bandwagon to jump onto

Don’t be surprised at the college. At the risk of repeating my earlier posts, the Master/governing body have a lot of recent form on this.

It’s not the academically robust place it once was, by some accounts, though hopefully the rot isn’t completely endemic.

Arday's staff details were taken down from the university and college websites within hours of his "resignation". I am surprised that this tribute to the renowned scholar hasn't gone the same way:

news.educ.cam.ac.uk/230223-jason-arday

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts?

Non speaking was a lie. Fellow primary school mates Saif he was a "chatty patty".

Years and years ago, I read The Oxbridge Conspiracy by Walter Ellis. The upper echolons of British life from politics to the arts, media and finance all have those 2 universities in common. Even those who rail against the elitism of society like class warrior Owen Jones and Agitprop filmmaker Ken Loach went there.

I wonder if it's ever been updated

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/oxbridge-conspiracy-book-walter-ellis-9780140231397

I get the impression anyone can be a fellow of the RSA - you just apply and pay the subscription. https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/faqs/