Former Cambridge University academic Jason Arday found dead at home

Former Cambridge University academic Jason Arday has been found dead at his home in London.

Metropolitan Police said they were called out by the London Ambulance Service at 3.12pm today.

Arday was found ‘unresponsive’ at the property on Daley Thompson Way, Battersea, as first reported by The Telegraph.

A spokesperson for the Met said: ‘Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.

‘His next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by officers.

‘At this time, his death is being treated as unexpected but is not believed to be suspicious.

‘The case is being investigated by officers from the Met’s Central South Command Unit. A file will be prepared for the coroner.’

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson added that they arrived on the scene at 3.06pm.

‘We sent a number of resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an advanced paramedic in a fast response car and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team.’

Arday’s death comes after he resigned from his role as a professor at Cambridge nine days ago, one he took on in 2023 as its youngest-ever Black professor.

Speaking after the news of his death broke, Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said she was ‘desperately saddened’, adding: ‘Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.’

Arday’s academic work focused on areas including race, education, and social inequality.

On August 5, he stepped down from his department in sociology of education amid accusations of plagiarism, with an investigation launched into his ‘appointment and tenure’.

He denied the claims against him but admitted he had made mistakes and cited an ‘unrelenting level of public scrutiny’ as his reasons for resigning.

Describing the reaction as a ‘personal attack’, he said that stepping away was the ‘only way to bring this chapter to an end’.

The academic came under review due to allegations concerning his PhD thesis, other work, and accounts of his personal achievements.

Controversy also swarmed his claims about his life and fundraising, such as how he previously said he completed a 600-mile endurance challenge in six days but later said it had taken 12 days. 

He also clarified a widely reported claim that he had raised £5.5million for charity, explaining that the fundraising was a group effort of 100 people and not carried out by him alone.

Additionally, he claimed he appeared on the TV show Seven Up!, the original instalment of which was broadcast two decades before he was born.

In an interview with The Times before his resignation, Arday stated: ‘I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made. I hold myself accountable, and other people should hold me accountable.

‘We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody.

‘I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist is totally unacceptable.’

Discussing the claims about his work, Arday attributed some citation problems in his earlier academia to the way he absorbs information.

He said that he used mimicry as part of learning while autistic.

It came after an analysis of his PhD thesis allegedly showed 180 passages were either matches or near-matches to the work of other students.

Arday refuted any allegations of deliberately copying material after similarities were recorded between passages in his doctoral thesis and earlier papers.

The dispute ultimately prompted wider questions about Cambridge’s appointment procedures.

Previously, Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s doctorate, had already investigated allegations concerning his thesis. He was cleared of misconduct.

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