Departures of note

Jason Atta Kwei Arday was a British academic and author who rose to prominence as a professor of sociology of education at the University of Cambridge, where he was appointed in 2023 and attracted wide media attention as the youngest Black professor in the university's history. Born in 1985 to Ghanaian parents and raised in Clapham, South London, he earned a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in 2015 after teaching physical education at Leeds Beckett University and the University of Roehampton.

Arday taught sociology at Durham University and the University of Glasgow before his Cambridge appointment. From 2018 he produced publications informed by critical race theory, focusing on race and racism in the British education sector, alongside autoethnographic reflections as a neurodivergent Black academic. Over the following years he made television appearances, received several honorary doctorates, and served in various trustee and advisory roles in civil society organisations.

In 2026, media reports alleged that Arday had plagiarised some of his writings, falsified research, and made false claims in his academic history and biography. He called the allegations cruel and denied being a liar, but resigned from his posts shortly after Cambridge announced an investigation into his appointment. He was found dead at his home in Battersea, London, at the age of 41.