Was Jason Arday just the perfect victim?

[KellyK2026]

Surely I can’t be the only one that feels like Jason Arday was a victim, right? Yesterday he was found dead and I feel bad for him. Here’s the reasons why I think he was a victim:

1. It is absolutely insane to me that Cambridge University would appoint him as a Professor when he was in the early stages of his career. It’s practically unheard of. At any university you typically have to earn your dues (which means working as an academic for many years) OR do something truly special, like a Nobel Prize nomination, to be promoted to Professor. I cannot imagine the amount of pressure he had been under to prove himself and likely had a tremendous amount of imposter syndrome. Cambridge let him down.
2. I’ve worked in academia for many years, and let me tell you, academics are under a tremendous amount of pressure to publish. This pressure can compromise quality. Arday isn’t the first nor will he be the last to publish questionable papers.
3. As I’ve worked in academia for years, I’ve experienced academics make racist and sexist remarks first hand. One white academic I worked with got drunk at a work get together and started a rant about how Black people shouldn't be president (this was when Obama was in power), that Obama was a Muslim and interracial relationships were ‘disgusting’. What made this somewhat even worse was that this particular academic wrote about racism in the public sphere, so he profited from writing about Black struggles while harbouring these personal views. There was no repercussions for him, despite presenting himself as something other than what he was.
4. I’ve also been sexually assaulted at a conference by a male academic. No repercussions for him either and he no doubt pretends to be a feminist in his work.
5. I don’t think it’s in doubt that Arday had autism. Now I don’t know how it affected him personally, but, again, that must’ve been extremely difficult and perhaps even blurred what is and isn’t acceptable in higher education.
6. He was also cleared of plagiarism but, again, so many academics have plagiarised ideas and papers, but they haven’t been strung up like Arday has been.

So, long story short, I feel like Cambridge let him down. And I feel like he was targeted because there’s plenty of other examples but they never get called out and nobody cares. It was a witch hunt. But I’d be interested to hear what others have to say on this matter.

Tbh, we don’t know what the University did in respect of efforts to protect him. They may have done what they could, but once things like this are leaked to the media, the stories grow arms and legs and soon things are beyond the control of anyone, apart from attempts at damage limitation. The University may have been supporting him behind the scenes, but unfortunately there was little they could do to stop his lies being exposed in the media once they were out there.

It’s also worth noting that there was another Cambridge academic, William O’Reilly, who was found by a university tribunal to have used students’ work without proper attribution. The tribunal concluded that this was the result of negligence rather than deliberate deception and he was allowed to remain in his post. I think that raises a fair question about consistency - if Cambridge was able to distinguish between serious academic misconduct and negligent practice in his case, why did Arday’s case become such a huge public spectacle?

But Cambridge would have been very unlikely to know what was true, let alone what they could say about it publicly. They would have to be super careful what they said given the media scrutiny and also Arday calling police and lawyers over what others had said about him.

What would be seen as an adequate duty of care to a fraudulent employee? It's a nice idea but it reality people get let go all the time when they've don't nothing wrong, let alone when they're accused or serious misconduct. We don't seem to be operating in reality with all these demands that the people he'd duped take responsibility for his wellbeing.

I don’t like media and social media pile-ons for anyone and I don’t agree with cancel culture.

I also think Cambridge bear a lot of responsibility for putting him in post, effectively promoting him above his station due to DEI/protected characteristics and the publicity that attracted.

However, the left are showing themselves to be complete hypocrites. There is sympathy for this individual (who was the architect of his own downfall), whereas they happily pile-on to people they deem unworthy, who they deem to deserve all they get. Compare the way some reacted to Ann Widdecombe being murdered. They’re crackers.

It’s also interesting that the allegations were brought to wider attention by Nathan Cofnas, a former Cambridge academic whose own views on race, racial differences and DEI are highly controversial. That doesn’t automatically make his allegations against Arday wrong, but I do think it’s relevant context when considering how the story was framed and picked up so enthusiastically by right-wing media and why it became a witch hunt.

Sigh. I’ve already answered this previously deleted comment. Just stop.

However he plagiarised his PhD and was a complete fantasist. I think he was let down by multiple people and many times. He would have been better off where he started and would have done well. He reached for the skies when he didn’t have the talent or intelligence to back that up. Unfortunately no one looked at that and told him it wasn’t for him. He was let down INo. He was someone with mental health issues and a massive fantasy life that he portrayed as real.

He's fallen down a v awkward gap - resigned with immediate effect which I suppose ended their duty of care to him as an employee, but he was clearly in need of substantial support. Who was meant to provide it? Given that it wasn't an ordinary resignation, but that he left under a cloud just as they launched their investigation. Just a very sad set of circumstances really. I really don't know why his family weren't going all out to get him urgent help - he should never have been left on his own in an apartment. I find the idea of any human being dying like that to be heartbreaking.

Fair enough. Except, there’s limits to what they can officially say and what they can’t. They have no control over the press and SM. Even if the big papers stopped their digging, and that’s a big if, there is no stopping the online “sleuths”. As for support in the workplace, again we don’t know what was offered (or not) and whether JA accepted that help. Once he resigned there was nothing they could do.

This whole thing is extremely damaging for Cambridge as well so it would’ve actually been in their own interest to mitigate, minimise and try to solve this quietly. If they could’ve, they would’ve.

I think the trouble is, most academics I know have absolutely come across lots of somewhat dodgy academics including profs and they certainly don't get sacked. Usually someone has a word. Therefore, the fact that he was singled out by the right wing press was absolutely because of his race and to bash Cambridge rather than due to the gravity of his misdemeanor. Sadly this is the world we are in, anything for a cheap headline.

They aren't the same things though are they?

He called the police to avoid scrutiny. He got a book deal and publicity based on total fantasy. He got jobs based on lies.

I don't understand the desperation to minimize what he did wrong .

I'm not for a moment suggesting that the pursuit of it was ok. But don't kid yourself that this was an innocent fib.

(I would also be very interested to see what happened if the authors of The Salt Path did the same thing given MNs relentless obsession with that book and how important The Truth is)

He wasn't a child, or even a young adult he was a middle aged man, 20 years into his career in academia earning a 6 figure salary.

He was let down my himself.

But it wasn't just academics was it?
The marathons, the quasi-celebrity, the brain tumours...

the people who appointed him had to have known. They need to answer to any questions. Yes, that means if they are hounded like he was they have to withstand that. I hope they have better support structures in place than he had. He had no one i think at the end. Apart from the ‘good’ law project joleym (god help him!)

He was cleared of plagiarising his PhD by Liverpool John Moores university.

Jason Arday has done a profound disservice to all academics of colour; he has given licence to the idea that we are all there because of DEI. I can feel sorry for his family on a personal level but I am furious at the target that this will have put on my and my colleagues - who haven’t lied/padded/plagiarised and or swished into our institutions based on a fantastical back story that clearly helped those in authority at the institutions he worked at feel magnanimous. Most of us - in common with our white colleagues - have worked bloody hard to get where we are.

I agree he liked and was most likely a fantasist. And I do think he was encouraged to do a PhD and perhaps he wasn’t ready. But I do also think that he helped a lot of people. Numerous people have come out and talked about how passionate and kind he was, helping them with his work. It’s sad that the media has taken such a black and white take on it. I remember when the story first hit and a presenter was saying ‘well, how did he get his GCSE’s to get into college if he was illiterate’, at that point I was thinking yeah, that’s odd - obviously thinking that he got five GCSEs (like most of us need to get to go to college) when in actual fact he got two, one in PE and one in textiles - subjects that don’t require much writing. But it felt like the media was only telling a fraction of the story to upset people and now he’s dead. He wasn’t a terrible person. He did raise money for charities and he did run marathons, which was enough. I don’t know why he felt the need to embellish it. But now people are treating him like he murdered someone.

Had he not chosen to lie about almost every aspect of his life this probably wouldn't have happened but the person most to blame has to be Jason Arday himself. It a tragedy for his family that he did all of this.
I find it amazing that now he is dead suddenly there's loads of sympathy for him in contrast to last week or so.

’Most likely a fantasist’? He definitely was. For whatever reason.

@Menstrualcycledisplayteam sorry but if anyone is stupid enough to assume that one black academic who had been somewhat dodgy means all BAME academics are - is ridiculous. You are also just perpetuating the racist notion that BAME academics have to be whiter than white to be taken seriously.

Yes, lots of academics work extremely hard to get to where they got to. However, lots are also somewhat dodgy....and most of those are male and white. Does that mean that all white and male academics are dicredited...? If only ..

Oh, he did wrong that’s for certain. But I refuse to let the media’s black and white take on it take away from what he did right. The bloke got two GCSE’s (one in PE and one in textiles) and went on to into higher education. How many people do we know that get two GCSE’s go onto higher education? When the media first announced his GCSE’s they didn’t say how many he got or the subjects they were in (which don’t require much writing). Instead they argued he got GCSE’s so he must’ve been literate. He did raise money for charities and run marathons. Why he felt the need to exaggerate it I do not know as that was more than enough. He did grow up disadvantaged to immigrant parents and I’m sure he faced racism and discrimination. Also numerous people have come out to say how passionate he was and how he supported them.

Now does this negate what he did wrong? Absolutely not. He should never have been hired by Cambridge and his claims should’ve been dealt with professionally and privately.

i understand why people are upset but there’s a man dead at all of this and the positive things he did shouldn’t be taken away from him.

He will also have caused the hard work of many other black academics writing about race and diversity, who will have cited his plagarised and falsified studies, to be discredited, which is totally unfair on them.

Yes, absolutely this. It was shocking but not really surprising, iyswim

Awful as it sounds, when I heard he had been found dead, I was relieved to hear he hadn’t taken his family with him (or a department of Cambs academics or something). Thank goodness it wasn’t THAT pattern of response

Because he had just released his draft autobiography which is what set the press onto him - bad timimg!

Interesting - do you not think that the reason that most “dodgy” academics are male and white is because most academics are male and white? And if you genuinely don’t believe that minorities (including women) don’t have to be perfect/better than their white make counterparts to succeed, then I would like to smoke some of what you’re smoking, please. Anyway, I don’t want to distract from the topic of this thread.