Ex-Cambridge Professor Who Resigned Amid Plagiarism Scandal Found Dead

A former Cambridge University professor who resigned amid allegations of plagiarism and embellishing his biography, Jason Arday, has been found dead.Arday, the youngest black professor in Cambridge University’s history, resigned last week after he was accused of plagiarizing a portion of his PhD thesis. The British outlet the Telegraph reported his thesis included more than 100 passages that were similar to the thesis of a Brunel University student, Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, that was published six years earlier. On Friday, the Metropolitan Police said that officers were called to Arday’s address.“A 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed and are being supported by officers,” a spokesman for the Met said. “At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious. The case is being investigated by officers from the Met’s central south command unit. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”The statement did not provide more details about his death. Arday was celebrated, not just for becoming Cambridge’s youngest black professor, but for allegedly overcoming major challenges. His memoir “Great and Unfortunate Things,” in which he said he was nonverbal throughout his childhood and did not learn to read until he was 18, was published in America on Tuesday. He also claimed to have run 600 miles in six days. However, Arday’s story has been questioned by some former classmates who said they remember him speaking as a child. One former classmate, Jonathan Stewart, told the Guardian that Arday would sing and “was always cracking jokes.” The Guardian also detailed questions about other portions of his biography.Arday denied the allegations of plagiarism. He told the Guardian that there were “multiple thorough investigations across several institutions” that “concluded that there was no plagiarism or academic misconduct.” Despite his defense of his work, he said last week that he was resigning from Cambridge due to the toll the accusations have taken on him.“While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement,” Arday wrote. “I have tried to continue because I believe deeply in the values of higher education, in rigorous scholarship, and in the transformative power of universities.”In a statement Cambridge University’s vice-chancellor, Deborah Prentice, said the university is “desperately saddened” by Arday’s death and expressed sympathy for his family.

Ex-Cambridge Professor Who Resigned Amid Plagiarism Scandal Found Dead

Ex-Cambridge Professor Who Resigned Amid Plagiarism Scandal Found Dead

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