{"id":7073,"date":"2026-08-21T09:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7073"},"modified":"2026-08-21T09:36:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:36:30","slug":"belgian-academic-who-accused-late-cambridge-professor-jason-arday-of-plagiarism-suspended-from-his-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7073","title":{"rendered":"Belgian academic who accused late Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarism suspended from his university"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

An academic who accused former Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarizing his thesis before the educator quit his job and later found dead has been suspended from his role at a Belgian university.<\/p>\n

Read more Miss Grand USA Mekyla Li stripped of title after alleged hit-and-run, previous marriage revelations<\/a><\/p>\n

Nathan Cofnas, a postdoctoral researcher in Ghent University\u2019s philosophy and moral sciences department, said Thursday he had been suspended \u2013 less than a month after he also claimed that Arday was appointed by the esteemed English institution \u201cexplicitly to advance the cause of racial diversity.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cofnas\u2019 suspension came less than a week after Arday, the youngest black professor at the renowned university, was found unresponsive at his south London home and later pronounced at 41.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will almost certainly fire me,\u201d American philosopher Cofnas, a former Cambridge academic, scoffed on social media.<\/p>\n

A Ghent University spokesperson said Cofnas\u2019 suspension was a \u201cprecautionary measure,\u201d without naming him, as part of a probe into \u201crecent public statements made by a postdoctoral researcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c As part of this process, the university is assessing whether there are sufficient grounds to refer the case to the competent disciplinary body for further consideration,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe university cannot comment further on the specific details of the disciplinary case or the underlying arguments, in order to safeguard the confidentiality of the personnel file and the disciplinary proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cofnas\u2019 suspension was announced after the university\u2019s rector, Petra de Sutter, released a statement saying Arday\u2019s death \u201cshould prompt reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that lessons will be learnt from what has happened regarding the way we treat one another both within and outside the academic world, particularly when people become the subject of public controversy,\u201d de Sutter, formerly a member of the European Parliament for Belgium\u2019s Green Party, said.<\/p>\n

In his Substack entitled \u201cDEI fraud and cover-up at Cambridge,\u201d Cofnas told how he ran Arday\u2019s PhD philosophy thesis through the plagiarism-detection tool \u201cCopyleaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

It found striking similarities with a thesis published by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, who was studying at Brunel University in June 2009.<\/p>\n

An analysis later showed more than 100 passages in his thesis reportedly appeared to be similar to or lifted from the thesis of Zwozdiak-Myers.<\/p>\n

Arday was hired by Cambridge \u201cexplicitly to advance the cause of racial diversity,\u201d according to Cofnas, who was fired by the university in 2024 over controversial blog posts. <\/p>\n

Read more North Carolina girl kidnapped at sleepover by friend\u2019s uncle, forced into the woods before good Samaritan rescued her<\/a><\/p>\n

The academic highlighted an article published by Cambridge which celebrated Arday\u2019s appointment as a sociology professor in February 2023.<\/p>\n

In the piece, Arday said his work\u00a0 \u201cfocuses primarily on how we can open doors to more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and truly democratise higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully being in a place like Cambridge will provide me with the leverage to lead that agenda nationally and globally.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arday also came under scrutiny after falsely claiming he had worked at three universities. <\/p>\n

He claimed he was a visiting professor at Ohio State University\u2019s Office of Diversity and Inclusion \u2014 though the school\u2019s DEI office closed in 2025 and school staffers said they had no record of him as an employee, according to the National Review.<\/p>\n

He claimed he was a visiting professor at Glasgow University, emphatically denied by the Scottish institution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He listed working at Durham University as an honorary professor in the sociology department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter leaving Durham for another university, Jason had an unpaid academic association with Durham University in relation to ongoing project work,\u201d a university spokesperson clarified to The Post. \u201cThis type of arrangement is standard practice in academia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cambridge bosses said they had launched an investigation after the claims emerged but Arday resigned from his role.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSadly, the years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack,\u201d he said in a letter on the Good Law Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more SoCal dad in jacuzzi kicked in head by laughing thugs who rob his $1,000 iPhone<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An academic who accused tragic Cambridge academic Jason Arday of plagiarizing his thesis and claimed he was appointed by the esteemed English institution to “explictly to advance the cause of racial diversity” has been suspended from his role at a Belgian university. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBelgian academic who accused late Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarism suspended from his university - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7073\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belgian academic who accused late Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarism suspended from his university - 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