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.

Good move, MNHQ.

Front and centre news pieces in print and online, home page op eds (character assassinations), top of the page or the side bar, every single day, for nearly a month.

No white academic would be similarly scrutinised (and hasn’t historically, to my mind).

You are a total clown. He rose to great height due to his constant lying. Of course he deserves to be ridiculed. His entire life with one gigantic fraud. And he took positions and resources away from those who were deserving. You are a very, very ignorant person.

As far as I know no white academic has been lauded for so many unlikely ( and egregiously fraudulent) accomplishments.
As a pp said, play stupid games win stupid prizes. He reaped what he sowed.

Essentially this whole sorry situation is a really sad case of fucking around and finding (or being found) out.

You began your argument very intelligently there 🙄

I don't think it is as black & white as that. He did have some incredible accomplishments but I think he got carried away with the lies and embellishments.

He did have the tenacity to progress up to PhD level - which for someone from a council estate background is quite an achievement in itself. While he didn't raise as much as he claimed, he did do charity work and raise money, which is also commendable.

It is a shame that he felt he had to lie - which then attracted so much suspicion.

The Arday case is such a mind field the more you read on it! Not helped by the fact that there are so many commentators (professional) & academic using it to push their own agendas on race, disability, diversity, academia, and journos just looking for attention, etc.

Agree. It’s never black and white. But people are desperate for everything to be black and white in a world of many greys. That’s life in the 2020s. I hate it here.

The problem is this is subject to GDPR. If you were subject to an investigation at work it would be confidential and your employer could not breach that. Media interest doesn't trump the law.

The statement i found odd was Glasgow's (although it may be down to the question put to them). They confirmed he wasn't a Visiting Professor. But he was presumably a Professor in full time employment before his Cambridge appointment. But they did not say this and the public interpreted it as 'he was never there' which doesn't seem to be the case.

Baffled that there is now crowdfunding for his funeral/family. Am I missing something here, the guy earned £70K+ p/a and had just pocketed an enormous advance for a book. I do feel sorry for his children, but their father was a fraudster, not the victim of some tragic accident.

This also struck me as odd - but I understand a memorial was mentioned. I hate it when things like this get monetised - it seems totally crass.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone is already writing the screenplay and the outline for the lucrative Netflix documentary. Too many agendas at play and for some people he'll already been seen as a race martyr destroyed by white academia... His life story & death will be weaponised. Once the money starts rolling, stories will change (call me cynical).

You could apply that to other fantasists though. Carl Beech is serving a long prison sentence - do you class him as vulnerable?

I find the JA affair pretty tragic and he didn’t deserve to die as he didn’t hurt people with his fantastic stories à la Beech, but, aided and abetted by various academic institutions, he did deceive and deprive students of the first class tutorage they’d paid for, along with depriving someone else far more deserving of such a post.

Doubtless his world came tumbling down and he’s not the first and he won’t be the last to choose suicide (probably) as the way out.

Nobody is suggesting any such thing, it was you who drew the comparison with Epstein, a convicted pedophile who died in prison while awaiting trial for further appalling offences. How you managed to conflate the repellent crimes of one of the most reviled criminals in recent times with the actions of Jason Arday is beyond comprehension. I'm surprised you didn't mention Fred West and Harold Shipman

But absolutely nobody has said that what he did should’ve been brushed under the carpet.

No you’re the one missing the point.

The reason he was in the position in the first place is because he was black! Also ND et al but I don’t accept his downfall was due to his skin colour. Take the blinkers off.

You don’t understand though. I’ve worked in HE too and, honestly, I’ve come across a number of absolutely awful white academics who faced no repercussions. One white academic I knew interviewed himself, analysed his own interview and then wrote up a paper about his interview (without disclosing that he’d analysed his own interview). It only stopped because I pulled him aside and said that you can’t do that. I’ve also known a number of white academics who have been caught out sexually harassing female students, nothing happened. Some quietly left. One academic I knew said he intentionally marked students he didn’t like more harshly. Again, no repercussions. It is not in question that JA acted wrongly. What’s in question is how hard he was hounded when we know that he isn’t the first and he won’t be the last. How he was treated was not fair.

Has there been a white 'academic' who has had the same behaviour?

The Times is quite an upper MC paper aimed at that demographic, the same demographic that have a fair investment in the world of academia so its more likely those stories resonate with their readership

I cant answer as to the DM

However I wouldnt call either 'hounding'. The same focus on wrongdoing is given to lots of figures, people that invite scruitiny into their lives, the majority are white.

Has there been a white academic that has done the same or similar behaviour? The short answer is yes, several years ago a white Cambridge Professor was caught out plagiarising his own student’s work and publishing questionable papers. He was found guilty of it in an investigation and was allowed to keep his job. No media attention. But I’m sure if there had been then journalists would’ve dug up some dirt on him.
Another American academic wrote a book on gun violence and it was later found out that he’d made up all the data in his book. When caught out, he said he’d lost the data in a house flood (lying). People laughed about it and he quietly left, but no media attention to speak of. Again, I’d say making up data points about a topic like gun violence and then lying about it is pretty dangerous.
That’s just two examples.

Had either of those academics also made multiple appearances on TV and radio, claimed to have raised £5.5m themselves, claimed to have volunteered overseas with Water Aid, run many marathons on a broken bone, ran with the Olympic torch, had a publisher pay (allegedly) a huge advance for their life story, shut down an educational journalist with a threatening legal letter, claimed stuff about a pigs head and threats which were disproved, claimed coma, claimed tumour, claimed...

It's a false equivalence with those other academics because it's a lot, lot more than plagiarism.

And again ….no one is contesting there have been other plagiarists. 600 miles in 6 days etc etc not so much . Obtuse and reductive to make out plagiarism is the only issue.

Way to minimise what JA said about himself

Not comparable at all Im afraid.

JA was hired on the victim narrative. Is that the same for your example?

Yes, they had made multiple appearances on tv as they were well known academics. Of course I’m not going to be able to find you exactly someone like JA - what a thing to expect.

if that’s what you truly believe than Cambridge is responsible for hiring him. I don’t understand your obsession with berating a now dead man. It’s weird, frankly.

I’ve just mentioned an example where an academic lied about a house flood to cover up the fact that he made up data. Now is that comparable to someone lying about running a marathon on a broken leg? I’d say it’s worse, but that’s entirely subjective. Both makes them liars. So yes, there’s been other lying academics too.

That, there, is the whole point against your own argument. They were nothing like JA. This is why there has been so much more scrutiny. It's pretty obvious.