LONDON: Black British academic Jason Arday, who resigned from the University of Cambridge last week amid a high-profile plagiarism storm that featured racism claims, was found dead 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.
The scandal erupted after some academics and media reports accused Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, of plagiarising parts of his doctoral thesis.
The allegations have been seized on by British right-wing newspapers and commentators, who claim that he unfairly benefited from diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Arday resigned from his Cambridge posts on August 5, shortly after the prestigious British institution announced a probe into the various accusations against him.
