Cambridge University Professor Accused of Plagiarism Ends His Life.
Family blames his suicide on a “campaign of misinformation” that “was too much for Jason.”
Jason Arday, 41, was found dead in his south London last Friday after quitting his job amid an investigation into his plagiarism allegations and now his family is blaming everyone that questioned his credentials.
In a statement to The Guardian from his family:
“Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse for more than three years since he accepted the role of professor at Cambridge University by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him. The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone. We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son. We won’t comment further at this point beyond asking the press to leave us alone now, and to stop the campaign of harassment which has been waged against Jason and his family for too long.”
Arday was found “unresponsive” at his south London home and later pronounced dead at the scene, according to the outlet.
He resigned from his job on August 5th, as the school launched an investigation into accusations that he plagiarized parts of his PhD dissertation and lied about positions he held at other schools.
Arday had faced allegations that he lifted more than 100 passages in his dissertation from another academic and that he lied about job positions at passed schools.
Independent investigations revealed that significant portions of Arday’s 2015 PhD thesis and subsequent articles contained unattributed text and references from other academics, including Paula Zwozdiak-Myers and Anjum Memon.
Originally, Liverpool John Moores University initially attributed the similarities to “honest and reasonable error.” However, new evidence prompted the University of Cambridge to launch a formal inquiry into his academic record and honorary appointments. Additional claims included falsified research data and the invention of guest professorships, such as a purported role at Nelson Mandela University that had actually ended in 2025.
He also claimed to hold a visiting professorship at Ohio State University within the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, a credential prominently listed on his Cambridge University faculty profile. However, Ohio State University has confirmed it has no record of Arday’s employment there, and the specific DEI office he cited reportedly closed the previous year.
Arday faced additional scrutiny over exaggerated or otherwise false stories regarding his personal life, including claims of raising over £5 for charity, running 30 marathons (786 miles) in 35 days, and receiving a £1.4 million book deal from Simon & Schuster
The clincher was the fact that investigations into these claims found no evidence to support any of his claims. Arday had also claimed that he was being threatened by a masked intruder with a knife and receiving a severed pig’s head at his parents’ home—police and CCTV records contradicted these accounts.
Arday denied intentional wrongdoing, attributing errors to his autism and lack of supervision, and described the allegations as a racially motivated smear campaign before his death.
