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The University of Cambridge's chancellor is condemning the intense scrutiny of Black professor Jason Arday, saying the public reaction to allegations against him crossed a line.
Arday, 41, was found dead Friday (August 14), days after resigning from the university following questions about his academic work and allegations of plagiarism. Arday denied wrongdoing.
The allegations received extensive coverage in British media, with The Telegraph reporting that more than 180 passages in Arday’s doctoral thesis were identical or nearly identical to passages in another scholar’s work. The Guardian also published an investigation into questions surrounding his academic history and personal claims.
The coverage continued after Arday resigned from Cambridge on August 5, saying he had reached “the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.”
According to media monitoring data from Newscord, 249 articles about Arday were published over a 22-day period, including 188 after his resignation. He was found dead at his home in Battersea nine days later.
Lord Chris Smith, Cambridge’s chancellor, described the response as a “racist feeding frenzy” during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program Monday (August 17).
“I think there has been a racist feeding frenzy around Jason,” Smith said.
Arday made history in 2023 when he became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor. His academic work examined race and inequality.
According to The Guardian, the allegations were first publicly raised by Nathan Cofnas, a former Cambridge philosophy researcher who was sacked from his role at Emmanuel College in 2024 after publishing claims that Black people would disappear from elite institutions without diversity initiatives and arguing that racial differences in academic performance have a genetic basis.
Cofnas later alleged that he found plagiarism in Arday’s work, prompting renewed scrutiny of the professor’s academic record.
Smith told the BBC on Monday that Cambridge also needs to examine its own role in the situation. “We have to look at ourselves,” he said, according to the BBC.
James Cleverly, a former British home secretary, also questioned how Cambridge handled Arday’s appointment and the scrutiny that followed. Cleverly, who is Black, said universities may have been too eager to highlight Arday as an example of diversity.
“It could and should have never come this far,” Cleverly said.
The BBC reports that more than 80,000 people, including British lawmaker Diane Abbott and actor Jameela Jamil, have signed a Good Law Project petition calling for an inquiry into media coverage of Arday. The petition describes the coverage as “two weeks of relentless harassment.”
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