Jason Arday

[goldenrodshortbread]

Not looked into the PhD plagiarism yet, but it is frankly galling that an ostensible sociologist of education can wing a doctorate from a post-92 University, have a typo in his thesis title, and get a Chair at Cambridge.

Spoiler: A bit of a whinge

At 37, I’ve got an Oxbridge doctorate, another PG qualification, ten years of postdoctoral experience at multiple RG Univerisities, three books, two kids, several peer-reviewed journal articles which contain original work, nine PhD completions - and I am eons away from getting a Professorship. Arday and I are in similar fields. I know Nathan Cofnas.

The tokenism rewarding the likes of brain-tumour-marathon-running-epileptic-illiterate-superhero-of-the-hour is an insult firstly to Black academics, and secondly to women, who continually outstrip the achievements of chumps like this but so rarely receive the recognition and platform.

 

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAs]

Cambridge’s diversity poster boy faces questions over ‘miracle’ 600-mile run - AOL

The Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row is facing questions over claims he has made about his athletic prowess and charity fundraising.

www.aol.com

Another article here. I’d believe the 30 marathons in 35 days, but the claims inflated after that. Looks like he raised low five figures- a worthy achievement, but in the decade following, it got inflated to £5 million.

Maybe he intended to run some more amazing ultras after this effort. But there’s no evidence it happened. Couple of interesting links here:

The 300 (300 miles in 3 Days)

Help Jason Arday raise money to support Shelter

www.justgiving.com

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/400in5days (interesting title, as the page refers to 300 in 3 days. Change of plan?).

Both closed.

So the 300 in 3 didn’t happen. Nor did the purported 600 miles from Edinburgh to London, with or without the 180-odd mile scenic route you’d take to make that 400-ish mile journey into a 600 mile one. That would be a feat of ultrarunning that would definitely have made waves in the ultra community. It didn’t.

I always know we’ve got a live one on our hands whenever there’s a “but I achieved this impossible thing on a BROKEN LEG and while I HAD SEIZURES and everyone CLAPPED AND CHEERED. Did they, aye?

From the first JustGiving link:

"The final challenge, will involve running the equivalent of 300 miles in 3 days on a treadmill, this roughly will involve running for 16-18 hours on a treadmill."

And

"As well as this, I going to need all the support possible too get me through running 100 miles a day on a treadmill for 3 days."

 

[drmortimer]

If he didn’t already exist, I’m not sure even Jeffrey Archer could make this wick up.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

Chickens coming home to roost?

 

[Tabitha D]

Yep, I’m sure there will be some damage limitation going on behind closed doors …

 

[SunsetSmile]

I found the actual online conversation this was referencing (about 6.30m in) & to be fair it sounded like JA did say semi or possibly some professional football after being in academy system & that he tried to join professional snooker tour but failed so I think the correction Bath put out was fair & appropriate.

What struck me though was that even being Dxd with autism/Global development delay he clearly had many gifts and a supportive family although it's portrayed by the interviewer as a challenging early life. He seemed to have friends and to have the self belief to be able to find opportunities for himself as well as having a mother who advocated fiercely for him.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

He seems to be admitting, or at least not contesting, that he plagiarised in his thesis. But blames it on inadequate supervision. And admits he did not, as an individual, raise £5 million for charity. He was part of a syndicate.

Jason Arday: I am not a liar, says star academic accused of plagiarism

archived 31 Jul 2026 21:37:56 UTC

archive.ph

 

[Tabitha D]

This latest article doesn’t really help the universities at all does it (Liverpool John Moores and Cambridge in particular).
What a rooster up.

 

[Tabitha D]

I was in academia myself for a while. (Postgrad & lectureships, Glasgow, UCL and then Oxford). This beggars belief from an actual professor.

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

I must tell my autistic son that he doesn’t need to bother being accurate or avoid plagiarism in his degree because that kind of thing is totally acceptable if you’ve got ASD

 

[FourSeasonSoupObsessive]

It’s all very “mistakes were made, but not by me”, isn’t it?

There’s this sense that somehow having academic standards is “gatekeeping” that makes me really uneasy. And his defence of that reads like “well, you can’t expect black people/people from deprived backgrounds/autistic people to adhere to these impossible standards, you racist/snob/ableist”.

It doesn’t sit right with me. Yes, I would expect black people/people from deprived backgrounds/autistic people to be capable of doing great things in higher education and academia because I’m not a racist/snob/ableist. Isn‘t that just the bigotry of low expectations that he’s feeding there?

The solution to academia feeling inaccessible to some groups of people isn’t just deciding that standards aren’t needed.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

This is an alarming aspect. The journalist is a professional doing their job - and with good reason it turns out

 

[SunsetSmile]

He seems to be admitting, or at least not contesting, that he plagiarised in his thesis. But blames it on inadequate supervision. And admits he did not, as an individual, raise £5 million for charity. He was part of a syndicate.

Jason Arday: I am not a liar, says star academic accused of plagiarism

archived 31 Jul 2026 21:37:56 UTC

archive.ph

TY for article.
There's a lot of information & detail and imo raises a number of issues.

What were the terms of reference of Liverpool John Moores' investigation?

The line about being within academic standards at the time makes my neck tingle.
Also autism causing mimicry. Mimicry is not a defence for plagiarism in academia.

His Director of Studies supervisor at LJM also had a post 92 institution academic quals profile.

Being able to afford a proofreader now so his work has improved. Yikes.
Maybe proofreaders should be centrally funded for disabled academics (dyslexic, blind etc) on a reaonable adjustment qualifying basis so that everyone can be confident they are just proof readers & not content creators/proxy academics.

What a mess and the constant reference to suicidality in the broader conversations feels like emotional blackmail.

A journalist looking into the situation reported to the police. It was NFA'd but this could be viewed as attempts to interfere with valid investigation.

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

I don’t think we‘ve had this article before: https://www.dailymail.com/news/arti...giarism-sporting-charitable-achievements.html

(Daily Mail link in case the link comes up as verified device)

 

[SunsetSmile]

I don’t think we‘ve had this article before: https://www.dailymail.com/news/arti...giarism-sporting-charitable-achievements.html

(Daily Mail link in case the link comes up as verified device)

Crying with laughter at the bit where he spoke to US association of cremation directors & the speech was titled *can't start a fire without a spark*

Bonfire of the vain inanities