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British academic Jason Arday, who resigned from the University of Cambridge earlier this month amid a high-profile plagiarism storm that featured racism claims, was found dead on Friday, UK media outlets reported.
Arday, 41, died after being found unresponsive at an address in south London on Friday afternoon, Sky News and other media said, citing a statement from the capital’s Metropolitan Police Service.
Arday was found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, emergency services said.
Arday resigned from his post at Cambridge University last week shortly after the prestigious British institution announced a probe into the various accusations against him.
He made headlines when the university appointed him as its youngest black professor in 2023 but he since faced snowballing claims he plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis.
Questions also emerged about some of his stated achievements, with Arday and his defenders claiming racism had motivated parts of the scrutiny.
In a letter posted online, he said that quitting was “the only way” to end a “difficult period,” but insisted the decision should not be “mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me.”
“It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure,” he wrote.
Arday said he was resigning from his positions as a Cambridge sociology of education professor and a fellow at the university’s Jesus College, with “immediate effect.”
The university had robustly defended Arday in June, claiming “a vile campaign to undermine his credibility” and insisting plagiarism claims regarding his “thesis and journal publications” had been probed and dismissed by “the relevant institution” and journals.
Additional sources • AFP
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