A University of Cambridge professor already facing plagiarism allegations is also under scrutiny over claims that he misstated parts of his academic résumé, including positions at three other universities.
Jason Arday, who became the youngest Black man to hold a professorship at the University of Cambridge, has been criticized after reports alleged that more than 100 passages in his PhD dissertation appeared to have been taken from another academic’s work.
New reporting has raised additional questions about Arday’s official Cambridge biography, which allegedly listed roles at several institutions that those universities say they cannot verify.
According to the National Review, Arday’s bio stated that he was a visiting professor at Ohio State University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The office closed in 2025, and university officials said they had no record of him as an employee.
“We have no record of an employee by that name,” Ohio State University spokesman Benjamin Johnson told the outlet.
The disputed résumé claims reportedly extended beyond Ohio State. Arday also listed himself as a visiting professor in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, but the university said it had no record of him holding that role, the Daily Mail reported.
A Glasgow spokesperson told the outlet that Arday “isn’t a visiting professor at the University of Glasgow.”
Arday’s biography also described him as an honorary professor in Durham University’s Department of Sociology. While he previously held several roles at the UK institution, he does not currently have a “formal” position there, according to the outlet.
A spokesperson for Durham told the outlet that the Arday instead “had an unpaid academic association … in relation to ongoing project work.”
Ohio State, Durham University and the University of Glasgow did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor at 37, has been the subject of glowing media profiles about his journey to overcome adversity and achieve elite academic prestige.
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The sociology of education professor has also said he has autism spectrum disorder and was nonverbal until age 11.
But controversy surrounding the educator swirled last month after Nathan Cofnas, a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University in Belgium, published a Substack article detailing several instances in which Arday’s doctoral dissertation appeared to be plagiarized.
The Telegraph also reported an analysis showing that more than 100 passages in his thesis appeared to be similar to or lifted from the thesis of Brunel University student Paula Zwozdiak-Myers.
Cofnas, who previously held a research position at Cambridge’s Emmanuel College, was sacked in 2024 after his writings on IQ differences across racial groups and disparate outcomes in meritocracies drew backlash, the National Review reported.
He controversially claimed the number of black students at Harvard would fall below 1% if admissions were meritocratic, the outlet said.
Lawyers at the Ivy League university described the assertion as “incomplete, preliminary, and based on limited inputs.” Cofnas also sued Emmanuel College, but lost.
Cambridge told the Guardian in a statement that it had passed the plagiarism complaints to the university where Arday completed the PhD, Liverpool John Moores, which had reviewed the work and found he had not plagiarised.
“We take allegations of academic misconduct incredibly seriously,” a Cambridge spokesperson said.
“It is university procedure that investigations are carried out by the institution at which the research was undertaken. This is standard practice in the sector because that institution has access to the information to ensure a full and fair investigation.”
Arday also told the outlet that he fully supports “fair investigation processes for genuine concerns” of academic misconduct.
“To clarify, 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,” Arday added.
Arday did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
