Inquest opens into death of ex-Cambridge University professor Jason Arday

LONDON — An inquest opened Wednesday into the sudden death earlier this month of Jason Arday, a Cambridge University professor who faced a storm of plagiarism accusations.

Arday, 41, who became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor in 2023, was found dead at an address in south London on Aug. 13, days after he resigned his post as professor of sociology of education following intense media scrutiny of his credentials and many of the other claims he had made about his accomplishments outside of academia.

The inquest opened with a short hearing at London Inner South Coroner’s Court. Any deaths in the U.K. that are deemed to exhibit uncertainties of one form or another are investigated by a coroner.

“The various reports have given me reason to suspect that Professor Arday died an unnatural death 12 days ago,” said senior coroner Dr. Julian Morris. “It therefore follows that I must open an investigation.”

Police said at the time of his death that it was being treated as “unexpected” but not suspicious.

Questions about Arday’s qualifications were raised publicly last month by Nathan Cofnas, a one-time Cambridge philosophy researcher who left the university after his critique of diversity, equity and inclusion programs sparked widespread protests. Cofnas previously argued that in a meritocracy, Black people “would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.” Cofnas was last week suspended from his post at Ghent University in Belgium.

In the wake of Cofnas’ charges, newspapers soon published stories alleging that more than 100 passages from Arday’s 2015 Ph.D. thesis were “identical or near-identical” to an earlier paper written by another researcher.

Wider questions were then raised about many of Arday’s claims about his life, including statements he had raised $7.5 million for charity through feats such as running 30 marathons in 35 days and 600 miles in six days. Arday later revised those claims.

Some also questioned his claim that he had overcome developmental delays that left him non-verbal until the age of 11. Arday said he was diagnosed with autism at a young age and couldn’t read or write until he was 18.

Arday, who resigned from Cambridge on Aug. 5, denied plagiarism, but admitted to some mistakes when working on his doctorate

His death prompted an outpouring of grief and a fundraiser launched in his memory raised nearly 225,000 pounds ($305,000) from 7,900 donors. The money raised has been earmarked to providing financial and practical support for his family as well as meeting funeral and memorial expenses.

The formal launch of the inquest comes a day before Arday’s memoir — “Great and Unfortunate Things” — is published in the U.K. by Simon & Schuster, which describes the book as telling the story of how an autistic boy who was non-verbal as a child and illiterate until his late teens grew up to be the youngest Black professor in the history of Cambridge University. The book had its U.S. publication earlier this month.

Pylas writes for the Associated Press.