Prime Minister Condemns Jason Arday Death as ‘Tragedy on Many Levels’

Jason Arday, a 41-year-old former Cambridge professor of sociology of education, has been found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon. The death of the academic, who resigned as a Cambridge professor last week after allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements, has been met with shock and condemnation from those who knew him.

A Tragic End to a Public Scrutiny

Andy Burnham has described Arday's death as "a tragedy on so many levels", calling for a "moment for reflection". Arday's family, in a statement issued by his publisher Simon & Schuster UK, said they were "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son". They attributed his death to a "campaign of misinformation" that had been too much for him.

Monarch Sounds Alarm on Maternal Mortality in Ghana

A friend of Arday, Eamonn McCrystal, told the BBC that Arday had described feeling "destroyed" and had told him his authorisation to travel to the US had been revoked. McCrystal said Arday was the "nicest person" and "so kind and such a gentle soul". He added that he was "in shock, I can't believe it".

A Pattern of Harassment

The University of Cambridge vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice led the tributes, saying the faculty was "desperately saddened" to learn of Arday's death. Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was "deeply shocked and saddened" and urged people to "remember there are real people with loved ones involved". Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said Arday was subjected to "an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse".

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the "level of harassment he suffered and the racism he was subjected to has been sickening" and "must be investigated". Lord Paul Boateng, who became the UK's first black cabinet minister in 2002, told BBC Newsnight he was "horrified, shocked and deeply saddened". He added that "racism in academia is a fact of life and needs to be addressed".

A Wake-Up Call for Academia

The National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said Arday had been subjected to "a public and brutal takedown that unleashed a tirade of racism". He added that "the effect has been chilling. It tells black people and others from underrepresented backgrounds that entering prominent public positions will make you a target". Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, Prof Simon Baron-Cohen, told the Today programme that Arday had been "bombarded by every media outlet to paint him as a fraud".

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said the "idea that an academic would be dragged through this amount of media scrutiny is unheard of". Shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said he was angered by the "tragic" death and said "a number of people at a number of academic institutions have serious questions to answer". Arday had denied plagiarism – but admitted errors in his work – and said the recent controversy had led to "an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack".

Source: JOY