The Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row was employed for almost two years at the University of Glasgow and inspired Scottish Wimbledon champion Andy Murray.
A row has erupted after another academic, Nathan Cofnas said he had found numerous instances of plagiarism in Professor Jason Arday's work and questioned some of his stated achievements.
While some critics say the treatment of Arday, who is black, has been motivated by racism, others have said the claims of plagiarism were legitimate.
In 2021, at the age of 37 he became a Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow’s School of Education.
This made him one of the youngest professors in the UK and the youngest black professor. His remit was mainly focussed on race and education.
Arday was at the University of Glasgow for roughly one and a half to two years, leaving to join the University of Cambridge in March 2023.
On October 10 last year he was invited back to the university, as part of Black History Month.
His talk ‘Where are we Runnin'? Thinking of a Way Forward' was a discussion about "the way forward from the global political storm which is becoming almost unbearable for all concerned".
Asked for comment by The Herald, the University of Glasgow would only confirm Arday's tenure at the institution.
The Telegraph reported that analysis had found more than 100 passages in Arday's PhD were similar to another thesis by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a student at Brunel University in London, published six years earlier.
The report followed a Substack post by Nathan Cofnas, an academic who claimed he had put Arday’s PhD through plagiarism detection software, which found that “many passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source”.
He also noted that a retired professor had previously raised concerns about Arday's subsequent academic articles, which led to two journals issuing correction notes.
Cofnas also questioned Arday's claims that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days, and 300 miles in three days for charity, which Arday said had raised more than £5m for charity, as well as running 600 miles on a treadmill in six days.
Arday told the Guardian that the £5m was raised with the help of others over a 20-year period, but said he could not name these people as he had signed non-disclosure agreements.
Arday admitted errors in his work, telling The Times, in an interview on Saturday that he was accountable for those mistakes but that "what I am not is a liar".
He has said some errors in his early academic work was because of his autism.
He said: "There has been, since I arrived at Cambridge, a very well orchestrated and co-ordinated campaign to unseat me from my position."
He argued this was "racially motivated" and that he had become a "lightning rod" for criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy.
In 2012, Arday was a torchbearer for the Olympic Games and met the tennis player Andy Murray via the TV programme Surprise, Surprise.
After the meeting, Murray said Arday had told him a story that inspired him to victory in his gold medal win against Novak Djokovic. “He is an epileptic who ran 30 marathons in 35 days,” said Murray. “He told me that on the 20th day he fell – he had a fit, a seizure – and had a hairline fracture in his leg, but he continued. He had asked to meet me, and that was pretty cool, speaking to someone like that.”
Doctors have said that running nine marathons with a hairline fracture in a fibula would be incredibly painful, though technically not impossible.
Speaking to The Herald, Scottish historian Professor Sir Tom Devine said it was "difficult to reach the truth" from the media reports.
He said: "Extended plagiarism is rightly judged to be the primary mortal sin among scholars.
"Those academics who are cited have sometimes come to directly contradictory conclusions on whether plagiarism has indeed taken place.
"In addition that key issue is now overshadowed by racial rhetoric for and against.
"Other aspects of Professor Arday’s life and career which have no direct bearing or relevance to the fundamental charge of academic misconduct have also been widely circulated.
"The fact that the central character is young and has risen rapidly through the university hierarchies can also easily stoke jealousies within a notoriously competitive profession."
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Cambridge University called the claims, a “vile smear campaign to undermine his credibility”.
But prominent academics of colour has said the claims of plagiarism were legitimate, and that Arday’s alleged actions risked undermining others who study race.
John Preston, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Essex, said: “Having seen the evidence, it triangulates and there is, in my judgment, a case to answer here.”
In an interview with the Times on Friday, Arday suggested the issue had been blown out of proportion. “I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made,” he said. “I hold myself accountable and other people should hold me accountable. We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced, and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist, is totally unacceptable.”
He has also claimed that mutilated animals were sent to his family home including a severed pig’s head, delivered in a large cardboard box to his parents’ home address in south London. He claimed to have intercepted the package and immediately thrown it away, only telling the police several months later.
When the details Arday gave about the pig’s head investigation were checked by London’s Metropolitan police, the Guardian was told they were “categorically” incorrect and no investigation had taken place.
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