Cambridge academics demand independent inquiry into Jason Arday appointment

Cambridge academics are demanding an independent inquiry into Jason Arday’s appointment after the University of Cambridge launched its own investigation and Arday resigned with immediate effect. Priyamvada Gopal said Cambridge should not be “marking its own homework”.

The group wants the inquiry to examine the “processes and circumstances” around Arday’s appointment, with external members and independent status, according to the BBC. The academics have also raised concerns about the appointment committee that handled the post and pointed to earlier disputes inside Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, where Arday was based.

The case has quickly become a test of governance at one of Britain’s most prominent universities, where questions about who hires, who reviews, and who investigates are colliding with a wider debate about trust in elite institutions. Cambridge had described Arday in 2023 as its “youngest Black person ever appointed to a professorship”, and later coverage said there were only five other Black professors at the university when he was hired.

That racial context has intensified the reaction. Alan Lester warned that the case could give opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives a “weapon”, while the Good Law Project launched a petition in support of Arday. The arguments now stretch beyond one appointment and into how universities handle scrutiny when a high-profile hire becomes politically charged.

The controversy also revived earlier allegations about Arday’s academic record. Retraction Watch said Times Higher Education had been preparing a story in September 2025 alleging plagiarism in his PhD thesis and journal articles, but did not publish it after Arday hired a law firm. In 2026, Cambridge said it had launched an investigation after receiving new information about Arday’s qualifications and honorary appointment.

Arday’s resignation closed one chapter, but it did not settle the larger question now facing Cambridge: whether an institution can command public confidence when it is asked to examine its own decisions. An independent inquiry would be expected to look not only at Arday’s record, but at the committee process, the handling of complaints, and whether the university’s internal safeguards were strong enough to withstand scrutiny.