| Jason Arday 22:07 - Aug 14 with 10695 views | Logman |
Absolutely tragic news. Sent a shock down my spine. Not only a highly intelligent and erudite academic, but also evidently a wonderful individual and family man. I actually knew him very remotely. Back in the day he was the goalkeeper for a team that played in my Sunday League called Battersea Park Rangers who actually won the whole League some 7 or 8 years ago (from memory), i.e. 7 or 8 divisions of 10 teams so no mean feat. I came across him at one or two of their games and despite playing in the best team in the League and probably being the best keeper in the League he was actually a really down to earth and friendly guy. Absolutely heart-breaking for his family. |  | | |  |
| Jason Arday on 22:19 - Aug 14 with 7541 views | PBLOCK |
I feel for his family
He was so obviously caught out on some things but there was no need for it to end like it did
I wish his family the best because it’s sad that he felt that was his way out | | | |
| Jason Arday on 23:17 - Aug 14 with 7260 views | Myke |
I was shocked when I read about this too. Looks like yesterday was the final straw when the boss lady at Cambridge expressed her reservations about his appointment. All very tragic and unnecessary . RIP Jason Arday | | | |
| Jason Arday on 23:31 - Aug 14 with 7190 views | joe90 |
I was also shocked. Even if he was a fraud, or whatever he was being accused of, he didn’t deserve to be hounded as he was. As if there aren’t more important and consequential things going on in the world right now. |  | | |
| Jason Arday on 06:00 - Aug 15 with 6757 views | PlanetHonneywood |
| Jason Arday on 23:31 - Aug 14 by joe90 |
I was also shocked. Even if he was a fraud, or whatever he was being accused of, he didn’t deserve to be hounded as he was. As if there aren’t more important and consequential things going on in the world right now. |
Cambridge Uni need to take a look at themselves here. They may well have been overly focussed on ensuring they looked diverse without undertaking the appropriate standard of scrutiny.
However, and let's not avoid this, that leads on to the more important question: if Arday had been a white professor accused of plagiarism, would he have been so hounded?
Apparently, the source of this vitriol is a former Cambridge don who lost his professorship after stating his belief that black people aren't good enough to be professors! Upon discovering potential 'discrepancies' about Arday, the right wing media got a bee in their bonnet and appear not to have had the same level of outrage driving their hounding of Arday as compared to, and still a Cambridge professor, William O'Reilly! https://www.varsity.co.uk/news
Either way, some serious questions here for Cambridge and about the conduct of the media.
Bloody dreadful business and I hope Jason is finally able to, Rest In Professorship!!! |  |
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| Jason Arday on 07:18 - Aug 15 with 6544 views | Beckenhamhoop |
| Jason Arday on 06:00 - Aug 15 by PlanetHonneywood |
Cambridge Uni need to take a look at themselves here. They may well have been overly focussed on ensuring they looked diverse without undertaking the appropriate standard of scrutiny.
However, and let's not avoid this, that leads on to the more important question: if Arday had been a white professor accused of plagiarism, would he have been so hounded?
Apparently, the source of this vitriol is a former Cambridge don who lost his professorship after stating his belief that black people aren't good enough to be professors! Upon discovering potential 'discrepancies' about Arday, the right wing media got a bee in their bonnet and appear not to have had the same level of outrage driving their hounding of Arday as compared to, and still a Cambridge professor, William O'Reilly! https://www.varsity.co.uk/news
Either way, some serious questions here for Cambridge and about the conduct of the media.
Bloody dreadful business and I hope Jason is finally able to, Rest In Professorship!!! |
It’s not just the blatant plagiarism though is it? It’s the fantastical backstory that elevated this onto an entirely different level; being mute until he was 10 (?), not being able to read and write till he was 15(?) the 30 marathons in 30 days. It was the sheer scale and audacity of his bullshit that attracted so much attention and not necessarily the colour of his skin.
Where his race may have played a part is the role played by Cambridge Uni and other academic institutions and their complete absence of any due diligence in carrying out any scrutiny of his academic claims or the standard of his teaching. How does having a degree in Physical Education from Liverpool Uni get you a Professorship in Sociology at Cambridge 8 years later? | |
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| Jason Arday on 07:36 - Aug 15 with 6493 views | Spaceman_P |
Its tragic and all the posts above touch on.the issue.
But essentially the media has blood on their hands. The social media age is like this. The countless suicides by teens now is astounding due in part the online harassment and sensitivity towards opinion etc.
Ìf I had a time machine I'd go back before Internet for sure |  | | |
| Jason Arday on 07:59 - Aug 15 with 6371 views | PlanetHonneywood |
| Jason Arday on 07:18 - Aug 15 by Beckenhamhoop |
It’s not just the blatant plagiarism though is it? It’s the fantastical backstory that elevated this onto an entirely different level; being mute until he was 10 (?), not being able to read and write till he was 15(?) the 30 marathons in 30 days. It was the sheer scale and audacity of his bullshit that attracted so much attention and not necessarily the colour of his skin.
Where his race may have played a part is the role played by Cambridge Uni and other academic institutions and their complete absence of any due diligence in carrying out any scrutiny of his academic claims or the standard of his teaching. How does having a degree in Physical Education from Liverpool Uni get you a Professorship in Sociology at Cambridge 8 years later? |
As I say, Cambridge needs to take a look at themselves. They are not without fault here.
As for the media, you'd think they might have acquired just a bit of decency after the Dr. David Kelly business etc. etc. etc. But no! I so wish the people had some comeback against them....oh yeah, don't buy their rags!! | |
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| Jason Arday on 08:02 - Aug 15 with 6336 views | PlanetHonneywood |
| Jason Arday on 07:36 - Aug 15 by Spaceman_P |
Its tragic and all the posts above touch on.the issue.
But essentially the media has blood on their hands. The social media age is like this. The countless suicides by teens now is astounding due in part the online harassment and sensitivity towards opinion etc.
Ìf I had a time machine I'd go back before Internet for sure |
Space......good to have you back.
Would you do the necessary, and kick off the promotion charge and honour us with El Frederico? | |
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| Jason Arday on 08:26 - Aug 15 with 6223 views | MrSheen |
A very close family member killed themselves. In my experience, suicide is a hugely irrational action, the product of a disturbed mind. While there can be contributory factors and errors and omissions in support, the rush by strangers to find someone or something responsible/culpable for an irrational act is distasteful. [Post edited 15 Aug 8:53]
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| Jason Arday on 08:46 - Aug 15 with 6141 views | stevec |
Academics eh, don’t ya just love em?
Of course, it could have been one of your kids paying thousands a year, indebted up to their eyeballs, being educated by such appointments. Don’t think I’ve heard any apology from Cambridge as yet, not really expecting to unless the government twists their arm.
Meanwhile thousands upon thousands of students are unable to find a job, failed by an academia that engorges itself on student fees irrespective of the quality of its teaching.
I’ve yet to hear a single student eulogise about the quality of their professor, invariably finding self tuition was the way forward, in overpriced student lodging.
It’s a tragic ending but I dare say there’s a ‘highly educated’ barista recently, whos ended his life out there without any such fanfare. I know who’d get my sympathy. |  | | |
| Jason Arday on 08:49 - Aug 15 with 6124 views | Spaceman_P |
| Jason Arday on 08:02 - Aug 15 by PlanetHonneywood |
Space......good to have you back.
Would you do the necessary, and kick off the promotion charge and honour us with El Frederico? |
It was done | | | |
| Jason Arday on 09:01 - Aug 15 with 6048 views | stumbleandfall |
The race realist has got a lot to answer for.
In so many fields people fluff their work and backgrounds to get a job. Most of academia is like this.
To have all that scrutiny because you’re black is wretched. [Post edited 15 Aug 9:05]
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| Jason Arday on 09:30 - Aug 15 with 5880 views | Beckenhamhoop |
| Jason Arday on 07:36 - Aug 15 by Spaceman_P |
Its tragic and all the posts above touch on.the issue.
But essentially the media has blood on their hands. The social media age is like this. The countless suicides by teens now is astounding due in part the online harassment and sensitivity towards opinion etc.
Ìf I had a time machine I'd go back before Internet for sure |
Journalistic scrutiny on a genuine, public interest story is not harassment. | |
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| Jason Arday on 09:35 - Aug 15 with 5869 views | stumbleandfall |
It is when it’s funded by right ring think tank solely to discredit DEI.
Lot of subsequent articles detailing many academics with the same history. No way near the same scrutiny apply to them. | | | |
| Jason Arday on 09:47 - Aug 15 with 5816 views | PlanetHonneywood |
| Jason Arday on 09:30 - Aug 15 by Beckenhamhoop |
Journalistic scrutiny on a genuine, public interest story is not harassment. |
True enough. However, there is a real issue here about whether and to what extent the media interest was pursued under. Was it a deep seated revulsion of and commitment to root our plagiarism in academia or, was it motivated to some extent by this person's race? Because whatever the media's motivation, they were almost feral in their intensity.
Again, Cambridge need to have a long hard look at themselves. But what we really need, is a comparitor, in the form of a: white professor from Cambridge accused of plagiarism, so that we could compare and contrast their treatment with that received by Arday to determine if there was anything, how would you say, untoward.
Oh, wait.......... | |
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| Jason Arday on 10:03 - Aug 15 with 5745 views | Sonic_Hoop |
| Jason Arday on 09:30 - Aug 15 by Beckenhamhoop |
Journalistic scrutiny on a genuine, public interest story is not harassment. |
The Spectator panel, including Toby Young (whose father got him into Oxford after he was rejected) was a politically motivated hatchet job. Particularly galling to see a bunch of privileged hacks trying to frame it as a case against DEI.
DEI is what gets working-class kids the opportunities they deserve. It increases the pool of talent to pick from not narrows it to a pool of privilege. |  | | |
| Jason Arday on 10:31 - Aug 15 with 5610 views | Sonic_Hoop |
| Jason Arday on 08:46 - Aug 15 by stevec |
Academics eh, don’t ya just love em?
Of course, it could have been one of your kids paying thousands a year, indebted up to their eyeballs, being educated by such appointments. Don’t think I’ve heard any apology from Cambridge as yet, not really expecting to unless the government twists their arm.
Meanwhile thousands upon thousands of students are unable to find a job, failed by an academia that engorges itself on student fees irrespective of the quality of its teaching.
I’ve yet to hear a single student eulogise about the quality of their professor, invariably finding self tuition was the way forward, in overpriced student lodging.
It’s a tragic ending but I dare say there’s a ‘highly educated’ barista recently, whos ended his life out there without any such fanfare. I know who’d get my sympathy. |
Graduate employment rates are still higher than non-graduates and wages are still on average about £12,000 a year higher.
Academia isn't engorging itself on student fees, there is actually a massive shortfall in funding (about £3.7 billion short) It's not going on academics either, with wages having been effectively cut for the last 10 years as work loads have increased.
Teaching is assessed, regularly, by both the National Student Survey and professionals.
I know plenty of lecturers, including the one I've been with since we were teenagers, who have consistently received acknowledgement of the positive impact they've made to their student's lives.
So, apart from that, you're spot on.
Remind me, what underpaid but essential function is it you perform? [Post edited 15 Aug 10:32]
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| Jason Arday on 11:40 - Aug 15 with 5366 views | Hooping_Mad |
| Jason Arday on 10:31 - Aug 15 by Sonic_Hoop |
Graduate employment rates are still higher than non-graduates and wages are still on average about £12,000 a year higher.
Academia isn't engorging itself on student fees, there is actually a massive shortfall in funding (about £3.7 billion short) It's not going on academics either, with wages having been effectively cut for the last 10 years as work loads have increased.
Teaching is assessed, regularly, by both the National Student Survey and professionals.
I know plenty of lecturers, including the one I've been with since we were teenagers, who have consistently received acknowledgement of the positive impact they've made to their student's lives.
So, apart from that, you're spot on.
Remind me, what underpaid but essential function is it you perform? [Post edited 15 Aug 10:32]
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Sorry Sonic I think this one only remains true in STEM subjects.
Non STEM is essentially a massive anchor round your neck in terms of life earnings. | |
| Chairman of the Junior Hoilett appreciation society |
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| Jason Arday on 11:42 - Aug 15 with 5361 views | nadera78 |
| Jason Arday on 06:00 - Aug 15 by PlanetHonneywood |
Cambridge Uni need to take a look at themselves here. They may well have been overly focussed on ensuring they looked diverse without undertaking the appropriate standard of scrutiny.
However, and let's not avoid this, that leads on to the more important question: if Arday had been a white professor accused of plagiarism, would he have been so hounded?
Apparently, the source of this vitriol is a former Cambridge don who lost his professorship after stating his belief that black people aren't good enough to be professors! Upon discovering potential 'discrepancies' about Arday, the right wing media got a bee in their bonnet and appear not to have had the same level of outrage driving their hounding of Arday as compared to, and still a Cambridge professor, William O'Reilly! https://www.varsity.co.uk/news
Either way, some serious questions here for Cambridge and about the conduct of the media.
Bloody dreadful business and I hope Jason is finally able to, Rest In Professorship!!! |
If Arday was white he wouldn't have got within a million miles of Cambridge. Nor any of the other appointments he had - just take a minute to read his Wiki entry and see the enormous number of appointments he'd been given by the likes of the Royal Society. Even if he hadn't plagiarised his PhD (and he obviously did, 100 identical passages including the same spelling mistakes is not an accident) his educational background would not have given him sniff of a job at Cambridge. They saw a black man with an unbelievable story and they ran with it, not just Cambridge but everyone. It made them feel good about themselves.
And the truth is that, in great British fashion, by the time people started to scrutinise his work Arday had already climbed so high that the institutions and people that had fawned over him couldn't bear to admit that he was a fraud.
As to the person who raised the alarm most recently, Cofnas, his motives are a side issue. You're just playing the man not the ball.
Various people have been found to be plagiarists, some have lost their jobs others haven't. Stories come and go, usually with a small article in the broadsheets because ultimately it's a niche issue for the general population. What made this story blow up was the absolutely fantastical backstory, one that changed on a daily basis. And you'd better believe that if even the Guardian are printing stories doubting what Arday said (as they did last week) then you know it's not a right wing witch hunt.
You're right to describe it as a truly dreadful business though, and awful for him and his family, but it's also a story that speaks volumes about modern Britain. | | | |
| Jason Arday on 12:22 - Aug 15 with 5204 views | Lblock |
So…. Is the consensus this is politically motivated?
Take away all the noise around this and the leaning.
It’s yet another suicide of a young man.
Yet another family suffering loss.
More people asking why.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for young men under 50 in the UK.
Men account for just over 75% of all suicides in this country.
It is a national disaster and nowhere near enough is being done about it.
My industry (construction) has to some extent sat up and taken notice. We’re looking beyond the undue stress we put our employees under in what is still a very tough environment and empathy is creeping in….. albeit too slowly.
There is ALWAYS someone to talk to and there is ALWAYS a better solution.
Stay safe and stay well lads |  |
| Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal |
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| Jason Arday on 12:37 - Aug 15 with 5128 views | TwoHalves |
| Jason Arday on 08:26 - Aug 15 by MrSheen |
A very close family member killed themselves. In my experience, suicide is a hugely irrational action, the product of a disturbed mind. While there can be contributory factors and errors and omissions in support, the rush by strangers to find someone or something responsible/culpable for an irrational act is distasteful. [Post edited 15 Aug 8:53]
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Well said. Like you I knew someone who killed himself. It was a profoundly shocking experience and one that I suspect his close friends and family may never recover from.
While I have my own opinions about what may or may not have contributed to Jason Arday’s tragic end, I would be more inclined to await the outcome of an inquest/inquiry before making them known (if then, even).
Meanwhile, It just makes the work of people like Clarke Carlisle (see thread elsewhere) in the field of mental health more important than ever.
My heart goes out to Jason’s friends and family at this awful time. | | | |
| Jason Arday on 12:46 - Aug 15 with 5060 views | PlanetHonneywood |
| Jason Arday on 11:42 - Aug 15 by nadera78 |
If Arday was white he wouldn't have got within a million miles of Cambridge. Nor any of the other appointments he had - just take a minute to read his Wiki entry and see the enormous number of appointments he'd been given by the likes of the Royal Society. Even if he hadn't plagiarised his PhD (and he obviously did, 100 identical passages including the same spelling mistakes is not an accident) his educational background would not have given him sniff of a job at Cambridge. They saw a black man with an unbelievable story and they ran with it, not just Cambridge but everyone. It made them feel good about themselves.
And the truth is that, in great British fashion, by the time people started to scrutinise his work Arday had already climbed so high that the institutions and people that had fawned over him couldn't bear to admit that he was a fraud.
As to the person who raised the alarm most recently, Cofnas, his motives are a side issue. You're just playing the man not the ball.
Various people have been found to be plagiarists, some have lost their jobs others haven't. Stories come and go, usually with a small article in the broadsheets because ultimately it's a niche issue for the general population. What made this story blow up was the absolutely fantastical backstory, one that changed on a daily basis. And you'd better believe that if even the Guardian are printing stories doubting what Arday said (as they did last week) then you know it's not a right wing witch hunt.
You're right to describe it as a truly dreadful business though, and awful for him and his family, but it's also a story that speaks volumes about modern Britain. |
Out of interest, did you read the first paragraph of my post about Cambridge's possible culpability?
Moving on to your point about DEIs. They are an attempt to level the playing field by removing barriers. Their need is one thing, how they are applied is another debate. I look at as an attempt at being a more accountable form of 'pulling strings', which the rulling classes have been doing for eons at the expense of the rest of us.
How else could one look at say, the brother of Trump's son-in-law getting front of the queue to acquire 21% of a WC or, the college admissionsscandal in the US or, the procession of UK royals going to Oxbridge on average grades...but, you get my drift.
Arday's death won't resolve the issues before us, but it's sure brought 'all' of them out in the open, again.
Edit: I should add that in suggesting Cambridge's role in this needs to be scrutinised (and the media's reaction); there does need to be consideration of Arday's contribution as well.
[Post edited 15 Aug 13:06]
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| Jason Arday on 13:23 - Aug 15 with 4937 views | Sonic_Hoop |
| Jason Arday on 11:40 - Aug 15 by Hooping_Mad |
Sorry Sonic I think this one only remains true in STEM subjects.
Non STEM is essentially a massive anchor round your neck in terms of life earnings. |
You can think it, but beyond records kept by the Universities themselves, it's hard to verify it. Besides, STEM subject graduates as a % are an increasing not decreasing number.
I'm not denying the decision to saddle our students with debt was ridiculous, or that graduate employment isn't what it was. But that's nothing to do with academia, that's government policies. | | | |
| Jason Arday on 13:46 - Aug 15 with 4841 views | TwoHalves |
| Jason Arday on 12:46 - Aug 15 by PlanetHonneywood |
Out of interest, did you read the first paragraph of my post about Cambridge's possible culpability?
Moving on to your point about DEIs. They are an attempt to level the playing field by removing barriers. Their need is one thing, how they are applied is another debate. I look at as an attempt at being a more accountable form of 'pulling strings', which the rulling classes have been doing for eons at the expense of the rest of us.
How else could one look at say, the brother of Trump's son-in-law getting front of the queue to acquire 21% of a WC or, the college admissionsscandal in the US or, the procession of UK royals going to Oxbridge on average grades...but, you get my drift.
Arday's death won't resolve the issues before us, but it's sure brought 'all' of them out in the open, again.
Edit: I should add that in suggesting Cambridge's role in this needs to be scrutinised (and the media's reaction); there does need to be consideration of Arday's contribution as well.
[Post edited 15 Aug 13:06]
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People do seem to get their knickers in a twist about ‘DEI’. I remember the great hue and cry in my own former profession of taxi driving when some (white) taxi drivers became apoplectic with rage when Transport for London decided to place ads in The Voice, a black newspaper, encouraging black and minority ethnic people, under-represented in the trade, to consider cabbing as a career.
For a lot of them it represented some sort of ‘woke’ agenda designed to discriminate against white people (even before Farage & Co jumped on the bandwagon), failing to understand that it was just an effort to open up the trade to people who may not have previously considered it.
I lost count of the amount of times I had to explain that even black and brown people would still have to pass the Knowledge of London examination (no simple undertaking but achievable with enough determination) to qualify as a licensed taxi driver. | | | |
| Jason Arday on 18:32 - Aug 15 with 4497 views | CiderwithRsie |
A small point about "DEI" (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion.)
Now back before I went self-employed, and so far as I know still today, the normal usage in British personnel departments is, for some reason, "EDI" (same words, different order.) This, for example, is the EDI (sic) statement for, not coincidentally, the University of Cambridge:
https://www.equality.admin.cam
But of course, in the USA it's DEI and that is the version that dominates social media, since Americans are a majority of English speakers.
Whatever you think of the issue, the fact that the public debate in the UK is now about "DEI" tells you a lot about the way that US political arguments come to dominate discussion in the UK (where the realities are, for better or worse, different).
And also about how many of the people spouting off about the subject actually have any contact with the details of such policies in a British workplace. | | | |
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