Former University of Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who resigned following a plagiarism row, has been found dead in London.
Emergency services were called to Daley Thompson Way, in Battersea, where the academic lived, just after 3pm on Friday to reports a man had been found unresponsive inside a property.
The 41-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said.
His death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious, the force added.
The family of Mr Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, said they are “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son”.
In a statement issued by his publisher, Simon & Schuster UK, they said: “Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse for more than three years since he accepted the role of professor at Cambridge University by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him.
“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.
“We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.
“We won’t comment further at this point beyond asking the press to leave us alone now, and to stop the campaign of harassment which has been waged against Jason and his family for too long.”
Mr Arday resigned from his role as a professor at Cambridge on August 4 following a plagiarism row.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, said: “We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news. Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.”
Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was “deeply shocked and saddened to hear about the death of Jason Arday” as she urged people to “remember there are real people with loved ones involved”.
She wrote on X: “I’m deeply shocked and saddened to hear about the death of Jason Arday.
“My heartfelt condolences are with his friends and family at this very sad time.
“I urge people to give them privacy through this incredibly difficult period & to remember there are real people with loved ones involved.”
The London Ambulance Service said it sent a number of resources to the scene on Friday, including an ambulance crew, an advanced paramedic in a fast response car and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team.
“Sadly, a person was pronounced dead at the scene,” it said.
Jo Maugham, executive director of Good Law Project, whose website Mr Arday posted a letter on saying he was resigning from the University of Cambridge, said Prof Arday’s death is “a tragedy for him and those who loved him”.
He added: “Those around him had been warning the media that this was a risk – it was one reason why I refused to join those condemning him – and I do not understand what the public interest was in continuing to hound him after he resigned as a professor and I do not understand what risk assessments media outlets did.”
Mr Arday, a professor of sociology of education, quit following a series of media reports alleging he plagiarised his PhD thesis – completed at Liverpool John Moores University – and other research.
Further questions were asked in the press about the truth of other claims he made, including saying he ran 600 miles in six days and that he had raised £5.5 million for charity.
An investigation at Liverpool John Moores University cleared Mr Arday of wrongdoing.
Durham and Glasgow universities are investigating the circumstances around his appointment to academic posts there, and Cambridge’s Jesus College has accepted his resignation from his fellowship, according to Prof Prentice.
Mr Arday said in his open resignation letter that he felt the “only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away”.
In the letter, addressed to colleagues and published on the Good Law Project’s website, he said: “This decision should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge.
“Nor should it 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.”
Over the weekend, he cancelled events promoting his forthcoming memoir.
Publisher Simon & Schuster previously said that the book, Great And Unfortunate Things, would be published in the UK on August 27.
This week, the University of Cambridge said it would run an independent review of “all relevant processes” alongside an investigation into how Mr Arday was appointed by its Faculty of Education.
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