Jason Arday

[Tabitha D]

This story has somehow(????) completely passed me by until today but now I'm all in on Professor Billy buller.

In some ways he reminds me a bit of Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos fraudster (although I'm not suggesting he's done anything criminal), but she also had a lot of famous, distinguished people and institutions eating out of the palm of her hand by a combination of grandiosity, blatant lies and leaning on claims of discrimination, albeit sexism in her case.

That’s an interesting comparison. I think there are similarities - the main one being that people allowed themselves to be gullible because they wanted it to be true, and so didn’t bother themselves with the evidence.
With Elizabeth Holmes, all those powerful men she had on her board etc. were supporting her because they desperately wanted to be “in” on the first female self-made billionaire out of Silicon Valley. (And there was an element of old white men being flattered by the attention of a young blonde as well.) They didn’t look closely enough at whether the technology she was pushing could actually do the job. Or was real at all, as it turned out.
With Arday, it seems like they really wanted the youngest Black professor, because they decided it was politically expedient / good marketing for their university - and they didn’t look too closely at whether he was actually up to the job.

 

[Tabitha D]

It’s just incomprehensible to me. How can you build a career on an ever-escalating mountain of (easily disproven) lies, then set the police on anyone who questions you about it? How can anyone think that’s an infallible, sustainable, long-term strategy?

How can you live your whole life just waiting for the inevitable moment when it all falls apart? Because I know there’s an argument to be made that compulsive fantasists believe that their version of reality is the correct one, but using the police to deter enquiring minds suggests that he knew full well that his narrative would rapidly unravel once someone pulled at one of the loose ends.

It’s baffling. But I suppose he came to realise over time that he was being protected at the very highest level - and that it didn’t matter what he said, he was completely safe from challenge. Plus accusations of racism at every turn does put people off - people have a real fear of losing their job if they are accused of racism for raising questions about an inadequate colleague - so they don’t. Arday knew and exploited this.

 

[Peaches2905]

"Scotland Yard spent four months investigating a journalist who tried to expose the plagiarism row that has engulfed Cambridge University.

Jack Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education (THE), was accused of harassment after he emailed a series of questions to Professor Jason Arday about his academic record.

Prof Arday also hired the law firm Carter-Ruck, which suggested in a letter to THE that its “apparent attack” on him “may be... racially motivated”.

The Metropolitan Police spent four months looking into the claim of harassment before deciding in February to close the case.

The police did not interview Mr Grove, who only found out about the investigation when the Met contacted him to inform him they would be taking no action.

The Met also reportedly passed on a complaint to another force about an academic who was also looking into the academic record of Prof Arday, but the other force refused to investigate."

I thought it was Cambridge who hired Carter-Ruck?

Journalist questioned by police for investigating Cambridge professor

archived 4 Aug 2026 16:28:46 UTC

archive.ph

It was Arday who hired them. Which says it all

 

[MavisBeacon]

It’s baffling. But I suppose he came to realise over time that he was being protected at the very highest level - and that it didn’t matter what he said, he was completely safe from challenge. Plus accusations of racism at every turn does put people off - people have a real fear of losing their job if they are accused of racism for raising questions about an inadequate colleague - so they don’t. Arday knew and exploited this.

This. It is a nightmare HR situation. I have a friend who runs a small business of around 5 people and had disciplinary issues with one of his juniors being rude and aggressive, not doing their work properly, missing deadlines, not doing things they were asked etc. When challenged, they accused him of racism. In the end they quit, but it was horrible for the team culture and client delivery, very stressful, and potentially opened up legal liability that would have tanked the entire company, and his own financial situation along with it.
Liars and grifters exist everywhere, and use whatever shields they can find to protect themselves. All it does is sow distrust and makes life harder for everyone else who genuinely faces challenges and discrimination due to legally protected characteristics.

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

Three universities deny Cambridge row professor holds posts with them

Prof Jason Arday became a poster boy for diversity as the university's youngest ever black professor, but is now facing questions about his academic record.

www.dailymail.com

I think that all the universities where he claims to have visiting professorships who have now distanced themselves. This is so embarrassing for Cambridge.

@MavisBeacon - your poor friend.

I have a friend who used to work in the civil service in central government but has taken early retirement in health grounds. They have a degenerative condition which meant they only worked part time and which they take huge amounts of drugs to control. Central government had/has a policy of positive discrimination where they would take on minority ethnic employees in junior roles in an effort to redress the racial balance within government.

Not all, but many of these diversity hires were bloody hopeless, lazy and, because they knew that they’d been hired because of the colour of their skin, were very quick to shout racism. One of them accused my friend of racism because he mispronounced her name. He was mortified and apologised immediately when he realised his mistake but she made an official complaint which thankfully wasn’t upheld. My friend isn’t remotely racist, he just takes a lot of drugs and he made a mistake with an unfamiliar name. It was a horribly stressful time which exacerbated his disability.
This woman and some of her other colleagues are now being chucked around between departments like hot potatoes because no one wants them. It’s a really sad situation all round.

 

[PamTax]

Someone’s done some digging and found the football academy he claims he played for… Crystal Palace!

I’d love to hear what they have to say about whether they had a non-verbal autistic child genius on their books. I’m sure they’d remember that!

 

[PineappleQueen19]

Well said sir 🫡

 

[PineappleQueen19]

Investigation launched, finally. I’m sure it will find that “mistakes were made” etc

University of Cambridge launches formal investigation into Professor Arday's 'qualifications and honorary appointments'

https://archive.ph/zMtWu

 

[Carefree]

Investigation launched, finally. I’m sure it will find that “mistakes were made” etc

University of Cambridge launches formal investigation into Professor Arday's 'qualifications and honorary appointments'

https://archive.ph/zMtWu

Wild that they didn't do such due diligence in the first place

 

[Tabitha D]

Investigation launched, finally. I’m sure it will find that “mistakes were made” etc

University of Cambridge launches formal investigation into Professor Arday's 'qualifications and honorary appointments'

https://archive.ph/zMtWu

I’m genuinely surprised. I was convinced Cambridge were just going to ride it out.
It could still be a whitewash though, I guess. (Because if it’s not, there are a LOT of people who are not going to come out of this very well). Let’s see what happens …

 

[ButtonDownTheHutches]

LOL

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

Well said sir 🫡


View attachment 4078486

I am also baffled by the people signing the petition. Are they completely gullible? Just stubbornly entrenched in their position? Utterly convinced that they're brave souls fighting for a downtrodden victim of racism and that makes them feel good?

 

[Tabitha D]

Hmm. Interesting if true .. (but not confirmed).

 

[Carefree]

So leaving before being pushed? Makes sense as his house of cards is crashing down.

 

[Tabitha D]

I don’t know why this is on the GLP website, but here we go:

 

[minimaz]

Amazing, absolutely no contrition or acknowledgement of any kind of failures.

 

[Tabitha D]

And people on X are already suggesting this resignation letter was written using AI.
But of course.

 

[Tabitha D]

The timing’s interesting, as it coincides with Cambridge announcing their investigation. So possibly they suggested he take some leave (I guess he’d have to be suspended anyway if there was an ongoing investigation), and he took a huff and resigned.
But yep, there’s no contrition there at all.

 

[mindlessness]

I don’t know why this is on the GLP website, but here we go:
View attachment 4078625View attachment 4078626View attachment 4078627View attachment 4078628View attachment 4078629View attachment 4078630

The GLP are the ones who started that open letter in support. Maybe they’ve offered him legal support?

 

[Tabitha D]

The GLP are the ones who started an open letter in support.

But I’d have expected it to be on the university website or something like that. Or issued to the press maybe.
Although having said that, it’d be more usual for there to be a joint statement which the parties agreed and that clearly hasn’t happened.