A former University of Cambridge professor, Jason Arday, was found dead in London on Friday, only a few days after his resignation over allegations of plagiarism and inconsistencies in claims about his career. He had also been a victim of what many consider to be racially-motivated attacks.
The Metropolitan police said he was found unresponsive in Battersea, south London, and pronounced dead at the scene, CNN reports.
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The officers were called to Mr Arday’s address by the London ambulance service after 3 p.m. on Friday.
“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 spokesperson for the Met was quoted as saying.
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The spokesperson said the death was “treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.”
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Deborah Prentice, said in a statement on Friday that the university was “desperately saddened to hear this tragic news.”
“Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.”
Allegation and intense pressure
Mr Arday has been at the Centre of the Cambridge plagiarism row since July 2026, when allegations about plagiarism in his 2015 PhD thesis became public. He was appointed professor of sociology of education at Cambridge in 2023 and was the university’s youngest-ever black professor, a milestone widely celebrated.
But he resigned last week after accusations of plagiarism and inconsistencies in statements about his career and achievements. He first faced allegations last year that he plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis and other academic research.
Although Mr Arday rejected these claims, the professor has faced heavy scrutiny in academia and the media. He has also faced mounting criticism over his research methods, professional conduct, and the credibility of some of his published findings.
Some British media reported that an analysis found more than 100 passages in his PhD thesis similar to another thesis by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a student at Brunel University of London, published six years earlier.
The Times published an analysis on Wednesday which claimed some of his research contained “impossible” evidence and was littered with inconsistencies. But Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded his PhD in 2015, said they were probably caused by “honest and reasonable error” rather than plagiarism.
Two corrections have previously been made to papers he released in 2018 and 2020.
The sociologist had also faced criticism in other areas of his life, including sports and charity work.
For instance, he had claimed to have raised £5 million for charities over 20 years, but his critics insist that £5 million raised for charity would be a staggering amount for someone who wasn’t famous.
Alongside the intense pressure also came increasing racist abuse. Cambridge previously said it was forced to screen his emails.
Mr Arday noted last year that he had been “threatened with a knife, physically assaulted and spat on.”
He had also dealt with rape and death threats made to him and his family, “and corrosive substances and mutilated animals sent to his family home.”
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Mr Arday, who has held several prestigious fellowships and many professorships at other universities, said, “There have been multiple thorough investigations across several institutions as a result of the allegations, and immense scrutiny, including with an academic misconduct panel who concluded that there was no plagiarism or academic misconduct.”
In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr Arday said: “It is with profound sadness that I write to resign, with immediate effect, from my position at the University of Cambridge and Jesus College.
“When I accepted the extraordinary honour of becoming professor of sociology at Cambridge, it was, without question, the greatest professional privilege of my life.”
The sociologist also defended himself, saying his decision to step down “should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship.”
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