Three years ago, Jason Arday, then 37, became the youngest Black man to be appointed a professor by the University of Cambridge.
That story was remarkable enough in itself, but what was even more remarkable was the life journey behind it.
Jason Arday had stated that he was an autistic child — that he did not learn to speak until the age of 11, could not read or write until he was 18, yet pushed through and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of 22.
He went on to earn two master's degrees — one in Arts and one in Education — by the age of 26, before completing his doctorate at 30, even though a brain tumour was discovered while he was writing his thesis.
And it was not only his academic achievements. In other pursuits, he claimed to have run 30 marathons in 35 days, finishing the final 9 days of the feat on a broken leg. He set a record of running 300 miles in 3 days and ran 600 miles on a treadmill in 6 days, raising more than 250 million baht for an organisation helping homeless people.
In 2022, Arday disclosed during an academic lecture that, as a child, he had been part of a famous British television documentary series called Seven Up, which follows a group of participants every seven years.
Over the years, Arday had frequently spoken of his impoverished family background, of being looked down upon, threatened, and intimidated — with the most serious incident being a pig's head sent to him as a threat. Yet all of it, he said, had turned into the determination that drove him to fight through life and succeed.
His extraordinary life story led the University of Cambridge to recognise his worth and appoint him Professor of Sociology of Education in 2023. The story seemed beautiful — if it were a drama film, it would end with a happy ending. But little did anyone know that the whole thing was merely a trailer.
The facts are these: there is no evidence to confirm that he is autistic, that he did not speak until age 11, could not read or write until 18, or that he suffered from a brain tumour.
Marathon organisers have not confirmed that he actually participated in any races, and running experts have pointed out that what he claimed is practically impossible. When pressed for evidence, Arday explained that it was a fundraising effort conducted collectively under the name of a "Syndicate" over a period of 20 years, that the figure of 60 days referred to 60 days spread across those 20 years, and that he could not disclose the names of his teammates because they were bound by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
The producers of the Seven Up documentary also denied that his name had ever appeared in the series, to the point where his personal spokesperson had to clarify that "Seven Up" did not refer to the television programme itself, but was a term used within the Black community to describe a support project for children with special needs.
There is no record or evidence of his claim that a pig's head was sent to threaten and intimidate him. The Metropolitan Police confirmed they found no record of any report being filed, adding that officers had at one point visited his family's butcher shop.
The British charity WaterAid also came out to say that Arday's claim in his biography — that he had assisted the organisation in finding clean water sources for children in South Africa — was unlikely to be true, as the organisation had never conducted any activities outside the country.
Just days before his name became embroiled in scandal, the University of Cambridge had established a committee to investigate him on multiple counts, including plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, false information in his applications and biography, and lying about having authored academic books that do not exist.
Most recently, Arday announced his resignation from his position as Professor of Sociology of Education and as a Fellow of Jesus College, stating that none of it was his own fault, but was rather a matter of racial prejudice, symptoms of his autism, and the fact that no one had ever properly trained or guided him.
