LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Black academic Jason Arday, who resigned from the University of Cambridge last week amid a high-profile plagiarism storm that featured racism claims, was found dead Friday, the prestigious British institution confirmed.

Arday, 41, was found unresponsive Friday afternoon at an address in south London, according to the capital’s Metropolitan Police Service, which did not confirm the identity of the deceased person discovered.

“We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news,” Cambridge University’s top administrator, Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice, said in a brief statement.

“Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.”

The scandal erupted after some academics and media reports accused Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, of plagiarising parts of his doctoral thesis.

The allegations have been seized on by British right-wing newspapers and commentators, who claim that he unfairly benefited from diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Arday announced on August 5 that he was resigning from both his university post as a professor and as a fellow of Jesus College, shortly after they announced probes into the various accusations.

In a letter posted online, Arday had said that quitting was “the only way” to end a “difficult period”, but insisted the decision should not be “mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me”.

– Newspaper claims –

The police statement said officers had been called by the London Ambulance Service “following a report that a man had been found unresponsive inside a property” in the city’s Battersea neighbourhood.

“Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene,” it added, noting his next-of-kin had been informed.

“At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.

“The case is being investigated by officers from the Met’s Central South Command Unit. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was “deeply shocked (and) saddened” by the news.

She urged people to give his family “privacy through this incredibly difficult period (and) to remember there are real people with loved ones involved”.

The furore around Arday grew after Nathan Cofnas, a US academic and self-defined “race realist” — whose Cambridge research affiliation ended in 2024 amid racism accusations — published claims about him in July.

The allegations included that multiple sections of Arday’s doctoral dissertation were copied from other works.

The Times and Telegraph newspapers have published several investigative articles into Arday’s academic work and personal life.

Some of his claims about his personal life, including that he once ran 30 marathons in 35 days and raised millions for charities, were also disputed.

– ‘Racially motivated’ –

In an interview with The Times earlier this month, Arday admitted making academic “mistakes” but said he was being wrongly “portrayed to be a liar and a fantasist and an academic fraud”.

He also alleged the “campaign to unseat me from my position” was “racially motivated”.

The controversy around Arday appears to have divided the Cambridge campus and wider academia.

A group of university academics last week wrote to Prentice slamming Arday’s appointment and asking her to appoint an independent body to probe what happened.

Others have written joint letters in support of him.

On Wednesday, Prentice had called his alleged wrongdoing “an aberration” and vowed a thorough and transparent investigation, while insisting it should not be used “to cast aspersions” on other academics from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The American psychologist promised the probe would look into the “circumstances” of Arday’s appointment and his time in post that would include academics from “beyond Cambridge”.

Arday’s memoir — “Great and Unfortunate Things” — had been published in the United States the previous day, ahead of its planned release in Britain later this month. It has also attracted scrutiny.