Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge sociology professor who resigned amid plagiarism allegations, has been found dead at a property in Battersea, London, after police were called to reports of an unresponsive man just after 3pm Friday. The Metropolitan Police said his death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious.
His family, in a statement issued through publisher Simon & Schuster UK, said Arday had endured a 'campaign of sustained abuse' since taking the Cambridge role more than three years ago, and that 'the campaign of misinformation was too much' for him. They asked the press to leave them alone and stop what they called a harassment campaign.
Arday, who became Cambridge's youngest Black professor in 2023, had faced media reports alleging he plagiarized his PhD thesis and other research, and questioning claims including a 600-mile run and £5.5 million in charity fundraising. An internal inquiry by Liverpool John Moores University, where the thesis was completed, cleared him of wrongdoing, while Durham and Glasgow universities are reviewing his appointments there. Education Secretary and Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell offered condolences and urged privacy for the family.
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