Editors at National Review Online explain why one of the world’s most famous universities is responsible for a recent scandal.
Jason Arday is now Cambridge University’s youngest former black professor.
The media and academic sensation made a name for himself becoming a Cambridge professor at the astonishing age of 37 in 2023 — and that may be the only verifiably true claim about his life. Recent investigations have exposed serious flaws in his academic work, falsified credentials on his résumé, and, almost certainly, bogus achievements in his personal life.
Much of what he presents as his life story would make Walter Mitty blush, and it finally caught up to him when he was forced to resign after Cambridge — belatedly and under pressure — finally announced an investigation of its faux prodigy.
Arday’s worst offense was repeat plagiarism — of both words and data.
His doctoral dissertation, for instance, had nearly 200 sentences that were identical or highly similar to the work of a student at another institution. Despite stealing material from others, his dissertation was filled with grammatical errors and typos — including in the title.
Other published articles by Arday have required extensive revision. For example, the journal Social Sciences updated Arday’s 2018 article “Understanding Mental Health: What Are the Issues for Black and Ethnic Minority Students at University?” and issued an editor’s note saying that the piece had been revised and citations had been added so that “it is clear where ideas were adapted from past research.” In other words, the journal tried to reframe plagiarism as just a matter of insufficient citations.
Arday defended his work, explaining to the media that he relied on mimicry to make sense of information because he is autistic. Yet, he worked furiously to silence coverage of his misconduct. Times Higher Education had been researching an article in 2025 related to Arday’s plagiarism, but it was killed after Arday hired a leading defamation firm to warn off the publication, according to Retraction Watch.
