University of Cambridge professor resigns amid plagiarism allegations
- Professor Jason Arday has resigned as a professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge following an investigation into his qualifications and honorary appointments.
- The university's inquiry began after 'new information' emerged, with media reports alleging plagiarism in his PhD thesis and other research.
- Questions were also raised about other claims made by Professor Arday, including running 600 miles in six days and raising £5.5m for charity.
- In a letter to colleagues, Professor Arday stated that the 'relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary' had taken a profound toll on him, leading him to step away.
- Both the University of Cambridge and Jesus College are conducting separate, ongoing investigations into the matters surrounding Professor Arday.
11 comments:
Could a no-win-no-fee lawyer try to round up enough ex-students to sue the University because they paid real fees and now know they were taught by an imposter?
I read somewhere that he stood as a ....[guess what].....a Labour candidate.
Read carefully his letter leaves the door open for a return to academia. I do hope that the current investigations close off that possibility. Not because I dislike him but because I dislike being conned into an acceptance of the political bias of academia and I hope the furore will expose the failings of the institutions that made his tenure possible.
I wonder if he will be responsive to the investigations? Or will he claim that he wishes to avoid more 'relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary'?
He supplied a story that the gullible trendies wanted. Heroic (black) man rises above difficulties to achieve greatness. Says a lot more about the employers than they would want to hear. A lack of basic background checks that would involve half a dozen emails and a telephone call or two says it all.
The poor man has some difficulties and could be safely employed in an appropriate environment somewhere without the fanfare, which has probably harmed him personally.
It's being reported that the resignation letter was 100% AI generated. A fitting epitaph to the whole sorry affair.
dearieme - it sounds plausible because it sounds like misrepresentation.
DAD - yes I read that somewhere too. Labour sounds right, or maybe Greens.
DJ - there are a number of narratives he could follow, such as deliberate exposure of the UK Establishment. A problem he may have with a relaunch is that he has made himself so generally ridiculous that he'll have to choose carefully - he has surely burned his veracity boats.
Chris - yes, he did supply a story that the gullible trendies wanted. To my mind it isn't easy to guess where he'll go next because of his mendacity.
Anon - nobody would be surprised. Maybe his forthcoming autobiography is already being AI generated.
Has anyone published an anaysis of the people who signed the letter of support for him? Some were presumably just being racist ("black solidarity" they might call it) but were other mere useful idiots?
An interesting case is Baron-Cohen who seems to be a distinguished scholar of autism. Did he phone around to see if anyone had records that showed Arday as an autistic child? He could hardly say that he, or his chums, had breached medical anonymity, could he? But if he hadn't even confirmed the claimed autism diagnosis, why in God's name did he make a fool of himself by signing?
There's much more to be asked and answered but I dare say it'll now all peter out. Pity. "Lessons will not be learned" is the usual left-wing Establishment approach.
The ball and chain party, shovel in his hand?
The whole thing is so absurd as to be hilarious, of course.
It does raise one question, though: in my working life I would never have falsified my CV, not because I'm super-honest and moral (although I am, naturally :-) ), but simply because I assumed people would check. It only takes a phone call, after all. Isn't this HR, you know, doing their job?
Baffling.
A lot of this is also down to laziness too. People employing, just cannot be bothered to anything detailed in the way of checking credentials as that would be too much like hard work. I've just had a recruitment agency contact me twice, urging me to apply for a vacancy in Bannbury which I would be an ideal fit for, as a welder. Nowhere in my CV is there any mention of welding, which I have never done.
dearieme - there are some who think the autism was the main attraction for promoting him, not race and that was the motive for presenting him as a star achiever. It would be interesting either way if Baron-Cohen confirmed or didn't confirm the autism. Yes it probably will peter out and lessons won't be learned, although maybe quiet checks will be made which weren't made before.
James - let's hope so, on Dartmoor.
Peter - that was my CV position, carefully honest, check dates and so on, but I also made your assumption - people would check.
Tammly - it does seem to be laziness, as if appointments are seen as tedious and checking would make them more tedious because they believe they can do it all through the tick boxes anyway.
Maybe you watched a video about welding, it's weird how these connections seem to be established.
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