# Cambridge diversity poster boy ‘must face plagiarism inquiry’

**By:** Gordon Rayner  
**Published:** 2026-07-28T10:39Z  
**Source:** [The Telegraph](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/28/calls-for-cambridge-professor-to-face-plagiarism-inquiry)

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Jason Arday has been accused of copying parts of his PhD thesis from another student

 
      The University of Cambridge is facing calls to commission an independent inquiry into plagiarism claims surrounding one of its most high-profile professors.
The university has so far refused to re-examine the academic credentials of Prof Jason Arday, who has been accused of copying parts of his PhD thesis from another student.
But pressure is growing on the university after the publication of a fresh analysis of his work, which found 188 sentences that were identical or highly similar to the work of Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a Brunel University student. Statistically, the chances of Prof Arday using the same words by chance were put at 1 in 100 billion.
An earlier analysis of Prof Arday’s PhD thesis for The Telegraph had identified more than 100 passages that were identical or nearly identical to Ms Zwozdiak-Myers’s work.
Cambridge has claimed its professor of sociology of education is the victim of a “vile campaign to undermine his credibility”, but respected academics at other universities say Cambridge must allow external scrutiny to protect its own academic integrity.
      Ian Pace, a professor of music, culture and society at City St George’s, University of London, said: “There needs to be an independent inquiry into this now.
“Universities are to some extent public institutions and benefit from public money and as such they need to be publicly accountable, not to mention maintaining scholarly standards.
“It’s possible that the Office for Students [the higher education regulator] might be able to oversee it.”
          Jason Arday became a Cambridge professor at the age of 37

   Dr David Harris, Professor Emeritus at Plymouth Marjon University, said: “I think that would be a great idea, as long as you could find someone to do it. It might need to be someone from abroad.”
 Dr Harris is one of several academics to have analysed Prof Arday’s 2015 PhD thesis and to have found considerable “textual overlap” with a 2009 thesis by Ms Zwozdiak-Myers.
He said last week that Prof Arday’s thesis and other published work “seem to display indications of serious plagiarism”.
        Prof Arday’s doctorate was granted by Liverpool John Moores University, which has also insisted he has done nothing wrong.
Robert Dingwall, Professor Emeritus of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, said: “There should be an independent investigation focusing on the prima facie evidence of plagiarism if neither university is prepared to take it up.
“In my opinion this is probably a matter for the Office for Students.”
 The Office for Students was contacted for comment.
Prof Arday became the youngest black professor in the University of Cambridge ’s history when he was hired at the age of 37 in 2023. At the time the university described his work as “world class”.
        He was garlanded with honorary degrees from other universities, guest-edited BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, appeared as a panellist on the BBC’s Question Time and was selected as a judge for the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards.
Doubts about the validity of his work first surfaced in 2023, and when Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores universities were approached by a journalist from a specialist publication last year, Prof Arday hired the law firm Carter-Ruck, which suggested the inquiries were possibly part of a racially motivated campaign against him.
Since then doubts have also been raised about fundraising achievements Prof Arday has repeatedly spoken about, including running 300 miles in three days and 600 miles in six days.
        Two online biographies of Prof Arday published by universities that have given him honorary degrees have recently been altered to remove or water down those claims.
Prof Arday has not responded to requests for comment.