Jason Arday Resigns After Telegraph Reveals His False Book Claims

Prof Jason Arday has resigned from the University of Cambridge after The Telegraph revealed he falsely claimed to have published a book.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Prof Arday said he was stepping down “with immediate effect” from his position at the university and at Jesus College citing the “unrelenting level of public scrutiny”.

It came hours after the university announced it was investigating him following new information regarding his “academic qualifications and honorary appointments”.

Prof Arday, who was a professor of sociology of education, has been at the centre of a plagiarism row after The Telegraph reported accusations he had copied parts of his PhD thesis from another student.

Earlier on Wednesday, The Telegraph also revealed that Prof Arday had repeatedly claimed that he was the author of a book called Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse.

The book was listed in his biography description in published essays as well as in promotional material for speaking events, and was attributed to the Palgrave Macmillan publishing house.

There is no evidence that any book was written or published.

The revelation raised questions over Prof Arday’s employment at the University of Cambridge. To apply for a professorship at Cambridge, applicants need to submit an extensive portfolio of work, which includes a complete bibliography of essays, journals and book chapters.

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The Telegraph revealed last month that Prof Arday had been accused of plagiarism after analysis of his PhD thesis showed more than 180 separate passages were identical or near-identical to another student’s thesis.

In recent days, Prof Arday has put his apparent plagiarism down to autism, saying he absorbs information through mimicry.

He has faced questions over other claims. Last week he admitted that a story about him running 600 miles in six days for charity was wrong, saying that it had taken 12 days. He also accepted that he did not raise £5.5m for charity alone – as he had said in the past – but had instead been part of a syndicate of about 100 people, none of whom he could name because of non-disclosure agreements.

The University of Glasgow, Ohio State University in the US and Nelson Mandela University in South Africa also denied claims by Prof Arday that he had been a visiting professor at their institutions.

Zack Polanski suggested on Thursday that the academic had been held to higher standards because he was black.

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The Telegraph can also reveal that he falsely claimed to hold a master’s degree in psychodynamic counselling from Birkbeck University. Durham University also contradicted his claim to be an “honorary professor” in its sociology department.

Cambridge previously said Prof Arday was the victim of a “vile campaign to undermine his credibility”, but faced a staff revolt over its refusal to re-examine his academic credentials.

Its investigation came hours after The Telegraph revealed Prof Arday’s false claim to have published a book.

In 2019, Prof Arday published Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova, which examined 1990s British culture through the lens of ethnic minority experiences.

In the first few pages of the book, a section called “about the author” states that Prof Arday is “the author of the following titles”, before listing Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse (Palgrave).

The same claim was made in promotional material for his appearance at a speaking event at Queen’s University Belfast at the end of 2019, as well as in an essay he wrote about racism in higher education, which was published in June 2020.

Palgrave Macmillan, an academic and trade publishing company, accepted Prof Arday’s proposal for the book but did not publish it. Despite the book not being publicly available, he continued to promote himself as its author.

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