The prime minister, Andy Burnham, described Jason Arday’s death as a ‘tragedy on so many levels.’ [1] This article will examine some of those without shying away from or minimising legitimate questions and challenges to allegations raised against the late professor surrounding plagiarism and claims regarding his personal life and achievements. This is necessary due to the impact faced by black academics like me who, having swam upstream against a tsunami of academic snobbery, achieved PhD success, yet continue to face scrutiny over our credentials and/or abilities within academia.
“Jason has to take responsibility for what he did. But when a white person makes mistakes, it’s just a story about them as an individual. When a Black person makes a mistake, it’s treated as collective – and used to undermine the very principle that Black people should be in these spaces…” [2]
We should be under no illusion as to the double standards and, quite frankly, the rank hypocrisy within these spaces when considering the treatment of non-black academics who are established – as opposed to merely being suspected – to have committed plagiarism. Here are some, to mention but a few:
- William O’Reilly: “Plagiarising professor stays in post and threatens student journalists.”
“A Cambridge professor resorted to legal threats and lies to stop this newspaper from publishing details of a university investigation which upheld a complaint that he plagiarised his student’s essays.
Dr William O’Reilly, an associate professor in early modern history, threatened Varsity with legal action if the newspaper reported that he had been found to have copied one of his undergraduate’s supervision essays. O’Reilly’s solicitor said that any such claim was “demonstrably wrong” and had “no factual basis.”
After further inquiries by Varsity, however, O’Reilly’s solicitor conceded in August that the complaint of plagiarism had been upheld by the University, and that he would not have any grounds to pursue legal action if it were to be reported.” [3]
- Anna Lora-Wainright: “An Oxford University professor committed “serious” misconduct when she failed to sufficiently acknowledge the work of Chinese collaborators in her award-winning book, a panel has ruled.
Anna Lora-Wainwright was told to make amendments to include the missing citations in Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China, for which she won a BBC prize last year. Chinese professors criticised the institution for not imposing stricter sanctions.” [4]
Senior lecturer at University of Cambridge, Nicola Morrison, was made to apologise for plagiarism of a student’s work (2010) while Dr Neil Winn, University of Leeds (2005), had a plagiarism allegation upheld against him after the discovery that substantial portions of his book were copied verbatim from another academic. Indeed, ‘…accusations against white academics…have passed with little fanfare.’ [5] To reiterate, these are just a few from a number of cases, however, there is no evidence of academic or media witch hunts against these individuals. So, why was Jason Arday subjected to public scrutiny?
“Jason Arday’s death was the result of a convergence of forces that reveal the fragility of the racial settlement on post-imperial and postcolonial Britain and the contradictions of its elite institutions. He was eagerly elevated as a symbol, ruthlessly scrutinized as an anomaly, and callously discarded as a liability. His rise and fall expose the moral bankruptcy of a system that wants the appearance of racial progress without the work of structural change.
Arday was killed by white liberal proponents of performative inclusion who propelled him with the aura of heroic exceptionalism.” [6]
These double standards are compounded by academic institutions’ apparently deliberate oversight surrounding a significant minority among international students who have been able to graduate without the academic rigour required, particularly at doctoral levels. I have been made aware of numerous cases of international students unable to write, let alone speak, English with sufficient proficiency to embark on, let alone defend, academic theses at such levels. However, via the employment of academic ghost writers (English proficient graduates from various backgrounds), their dissertations are written with accompanying scripts to prepare the student for the final viva (doctoral examination). The ‘successful students’ are then able to assume lucrative governmental and professional corporate positions when returning to their countries of origin.
These practices diminish the standing of western academia yet; there is a stark absence of scrutiny remotely similar to that placed on black academics. Why is this so? The following provides a likely answer:
“University leaders are warning of financial turmoil in British higher education after new figures suggested a collapse in international student numbers would deprive the sector of vital income and undermine its future.
The sector’s leaders called on the government to rethink the levy on international student fees imposed under Keir Starmer, as a former universities minister warned there was a risk of a university “going under” because of the financial crisis.” [7]
From Mascot to Scapegoat: Tokenism gone wrong again – drastically
The definition of a mascot is ‘…a person, animal or object that represents a group and is thought to bring good luck.’ As Jason Okundaye rightly asserts, “Arday was treated not as a scholar but as a mascot.” [8] We do not have to look very far to witness the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of black personalities when they were considered an embarrassment or threat to whichever [predominantly white-led] brand or industry they were once so adoringly and brazenly feted by. Remember, Bill Cosby (in contrast to Harvey Weinstein), Frank Bruno (in contrast to Henry Cooper), OJ Simpson and of course, more recently, Kanye West? The list is exhaustive and should be a lesson for aspiring black academics and professionals whose value to society appears to be one of entertainment and yes, servitude. Nathan Cofnas, who first outed Arday, while both worked at Cambridge, certainly held such an ideology:
“In February 2024, he published a post on Substack in which he claimed that race is linked to intelligence and that without DEI initiatives there would be no black academics at Harvard and that “under a colour-blind system” Black people “would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sport and entertainment”. He called for a “revolution” against the “DEI devil” and for people to “accept that talent is not distributed equally within or across groups”.” [9]
Cofnas was subsequently dismissed for his racist views, and rightly so. However, he succeeded in putting the train in motion against Arday, emboldening the far right in the process while simultaneously shining a spotlight on leftwing desperation and disingenuity via the liberal lens that employed Arday from the outset. His employment was considered “…particularly expedient for an institution that had been regularly embarrassed by its historic record on race…” [10] If the necessary academic rigour and HR, due diligence etc. were thoroughly deployed, with appropriate references verifying or failing to verify Arday’s suitability for what was a groundbreaking new position, why are we here today?
Let’s be clear, questions remain regarding Arday’s personal achievements among a second investigation – this time by Cambridge – regarding plagiarism claims (despite the rejection of such by his previous university, Liverpool John Moores). His personal claims of near superhuman feats may well be unsubstantiated, embellishments in other areas could have occurred, but should these have amounted to the public scrutiny and campaign mounted against him? We know of more prominent personalities far worse with their narcissism, megalomania and lies, like the sitting president, Donald Trump, previous leaders, such as Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, the latter two of whom no longer receive the attention they deserve to what amounts to criminality as far as it relates to their disingenuity regarding the handling of the Iraq War (2003) and Covid-19 pandemic. One hundred and eighty-eight articles (188) were written about Arday in 9 days. He was an academic, not a politician, nor a sporting personality or actor, nor an individual available for media consumption and disposal. Malcolm X articulated it well when he stated:
“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty, and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power, because they control the mind of the masses.” [11]
Conclusion
Dr Yusuf Malik Frederick recently published his doctoral thesis in which he researched spiritual abuse and racial trauma, and how they intersect to cause psychological distress among African American Muslims.[12] At this juncture, I will refer to some aspects of his work that may be pertinent to the emotional and mental challenges Arday was facing before his unfortunate and untimely death. I have adjusted Dr Frederick’s spiritual or religious framing within a relevant and UK context.
Arday’s close confidants described the distress he was feeling leading up to his death. Dr Frederick describes Compound Trauma as being,
“…the interactive, mutually reinforcing effects that emerge when two or more identity-based harms co-occur… [academic abuse] embedded in [academia-based] contexts and race-based stress. Compound trauma is more than the simple sum of harms; it creates distinctive pathways of injury by altering meaning-making frameworks, restricting access to communal coping resources, and producing epistemic harms that make it difficult to name or seek help.” [13]
Arday was, to many who encountered him, a natty professor, that of a personality who encapsulated the traditional meaning of the noun; namely, ‘stylish, neat, and trim in appearance.’ His braids, while not to mistaken for dreadlocks, projected a persona envisioned by Bob Marley when he proclaimed:
“[I] don’t care what the world say, (Natty Dread)
[I] could never go astray, (Natty Dread)
Just like a bright sunny day (Natty Dread)
Oh, we’re gonna have things our way (Natty Dread)” [14]
However, before we can chart a more equitable, decolonised approach to how Black Britons are considered or conversely, continue to be overlooked in academic and wider institutions, it is necessary to discard the tokenistic, colonial cloak adopted by many. As one of Arday’s associates, who has been vocal regarding the treatment of black-focused academia in Britain, Professor Kehinde Andrews, states:
“Many of us have integrated to the point where we comfortably benefit from the fruits of imperialism. So, we are also not immune to the psychosis of Whiteness. There are many black members of the Conservative party; Black entertainers get rich living up to racial stereotypes…”[15]
Unfortunately, this also applies to some members among our black communities who believe they now academically possess what is required to contribute towards the higher education table when instead, we should be bringing our own one, and navigating a more inclusive, equitable paradigm where reliance is no longer on these inherently flawed establishments that continue to prevail.
[1] Sky News: ‘Andy Burnham calls death of former Cambridge professor ‘a tragedy on so many levels,’ https://news.sky.com/story/jason-arday-former-cambridge-university-professor-found-dead-after-resigning-following-plagiarism-row-13573124
[2] Osuh, C: ‘Old racist wine in a new bottle: Black academics respond to Jason Arday affair’, The Guardian, 8th August 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/08/black-academics-respond-to-jason-arday-affair?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
[3] Olsson, E: ‘Plagiarising professor stays in post and threatens student journalists,’ Varsity, 16th August 2026: https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/26105
[4] Busby, E: ‘Oxford professor failed to credit work of Chinese colleagues in award-winning book, panel rules,’ Independent, 24th October 2019: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/anna-lora-wainwright-book-plagiarism-oxford-university-professor-chinese-research-a9169311.html
[5] Osuh, C: ‘Old racist wine in a new bottle: Black academics respond to Jason Arday affair’, The Guardian, 8th August 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/08/black-academics-respond-to-jason-arday-affair?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
[6] Zeleza, P T: ‘Who Killed Jason Arday?’ 14th August 2026: https://paulddf.substack.com/p/who-killed-jason-arday?r=82g5r0&utm_medium=ios
[7] Adams, R & Mason, R: ‘UK universities face ‘financial crisis’ amid collapse in international students,’ The Guardian, 14th August 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/aug/13/uk-universities-face-financial-crisis-amid-collapse-in-international-students
[8] Okunddaye, J: ‘The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake up call for the left,’ The Guardian, 6th August 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/06/jason-arday-dei-race-issues-university-of-cambridge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
[9] Isaacs, L: ‘Nathan Cofnas, the man at the centre of Arday plagiarism row, was dismissed for his views on race,’ The Observer, 16th August 2026: https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/nathan-cofnas-the-man-at-the-centre-of-arday-plagiarism-row-was-dismissed-for-views-on-race
[10] Okunddaye, J: ‘The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake up call for the left,’ The Guardian, 6th August 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/06/jason-arday-dei-race-issues-university-of-cambridge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
[11] Malcolm X Quotes: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/74430-the-media-s-the-most-powerful-entity-on-earth-they-have
[12] Frederick, Y M: ‘I Love Islam but I’m tired of Muslims: How spiritual abuse and racial trauma intersect to cause psychological distress among African American Muslims, ©Dr. Yusuf Malik Frederick, JD. PhD 2026
[13] Ibid, p.18
[14] Marley, B: ‘Natty Dreadlocks,’ https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-natty-dread-lyrics
[15] Andrews, K: ‘Back to Black: Black Radicalism for the 21st Century,’ Zed Books,019, p.199
