A TikToker who says he attended the same primary school as Professor Jason Arday has challenged claims that the academic was unable to speak until he was 11, alleging instead that he was known as a talkative pupil who was “chatting all the time”. Professor Arday, 41, resigned from the University of Cambridge this week following a series of allegations concerning plagiarism and claims that aspects of his personal history, career and achievements had been exaggerated or inaccurately presented.

Cambridge has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his appointment and tenure, while several aspects of his biography have come under scrutiny. Among the claims now being questioned are accounts of his childhood and health struggles.

Jonathan, a TikToker who uses the name “strictlyvibeswithga”, said he attended Heathbrook Primary School in Lambeth, London, one year below Professor Arday.

He also said the pair knew each other through Sunday School and other community clubs.

In a video posted on TikTok, Jonathan alleged: “I knew it was a joke thing and I knew it was fraud, man said he was a mute.

“What do you mean bro? I went school with you, I was in primary school with you.”

He claimed Professor Arday had been a “class clown” and described him as a “chatty patty all the time”.

Jonathan added: “It's bait. You should have known it was going to be peak for you bruv, you should have known they were going to dig up.”

In another video, he said: “The brother [Professor Arday] was chatting, the brother was chatting all the time. And I didn't just go school with him, I went Sunday school with him as well.”

The claims are significant because Professor Arday has previously spoken publicly about experiencing muteness during childhood.

Following his appointment as Cambridge's youngest black professor at the age of 37 in 2023, Heathbrook Primary School publicly celebrated his achievement.

A school spokesman said at the time: “Thrilled to see one of our ex-pupils Jason Arday become the youngest ever black professor at Cambridge.

“We share his aim to inspire others from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds”.

It is understood that Professor Arday and his older brother attended the Lambeth school and lived on the same estate as Jonathan.

Plagiarism allegations and university investigations

The controversy surrounding Professor Arday began with allegations that passages in his 2015 PhD thesis had been taken from another academic's work without appropriate attribution.

Liverpool John Moores University previously investigated the allegations and cleared him of plagiarism. However, the claims resurfaced in recent weeks and prompted renewed scrutiny of his academic career.

Since then, further aspects of Professor Arday's biography have been questioned.

Among them are claims concerning fundraising achievements. Professor Arday previously said he had helped raise £5.5 million for charity and described running 600 miles in six days as part of the fundraising effort.

He later clarified that the 600-mile challenge had actually taken place over 12 days. He also said the £5.5 million figure had been raised through multiple syndicates involving more than 100 people.

Professor Arday said he could not identify the contributors because they had signed non-disclosure agreements.

Several universities have also disputed positions attributed to him in his Cambridge biography on the Jesus College website.

The biography stated that Professor Arday was a visiting professor at Ohio State University within its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, as well as at the University of Glasgow's School of Education.

Both institutions denied that he had held those positions.

The biography also described him as an honorary professor at Durham University's Department of Sociology. Although Professor Arday had previously held several positions at Durham, it has been reported that he no longer held a formal role there.

Claims in memoir proposal changed

Further questions have emerged over claims contained in an earlier proposal for Professor Arday's memoir.

Details included in the proposal appear to differ from those in the final version of the book.

The proposal reportedly stated that Professor Arday had experienced locked-in syndrome and testicular cancer, alongside previously described health problems including a brain tumour, epilepsy and muteness.

It also described an incident in which he was allegedly struck by a car as a teenager and spent several months in a coma.

That account changed in the final memoir, where he instead described completing school and sitting his examinations during the same period.

The proposal said Professor Arday experienced locked-in syndrome while in the coma and witnessed doctors telling his parents that he would not recover and should be removed from life support “as an act of mercy”.

It stated: “As I will describe to readers in the book, these months afforded me another profoundly different way of perceiving the world.”

The proposal went on to say that he awoke “miraculously” and subsequently spent a year “relearning everything—how to walk, to talk”.

The account of cancer also differed, with the proposal referring to testicular cancer rather than the two brain tumours described in the final memoir.

Other details were also changed. An incident involving a group of boys who allegedly assaulted him was described as involving perpetrators four years older than him in the proposal, compared with the account in the final book.

Similarly, a suicide attempt was said in the proposal to have occurred before the pandemic, while the final memoir reportedly placed it during the pandemic.

Former students raise concerns

The controversy has also prompted concerns from former Cambridge students who were taught or supervised by Professor Arday. Some have called for their grades to be reviewed, claiming that the supervision they received was “inadequate”.

Others reportedly said Professor Arday told them they did not require supervision because they were particularly talented. It also emerged that Professor Arday complained to police when Times Higher Education began examining aspects of his academic record.

The complaint resulted in officers contacting the journalist involved.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley subsequently acknowledged that the force had “dropped the ball” after officers spent four months investigating the journalist.

Glasgow launches review

The University of Glasgow has also announced a review of Professor Arday's appointment following the controversy.

A university spokesman said on Friday evening: “Jason Arday was employed as Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow, from January 2022 to March 2023.

“He left the University to take up his role as Professorial Chair at the University of Cambridge. The Principal has commissioned a review of the appointment with the aim of understanding all the facts and learning lessons for the future.”

At Cambridge, dozens of academics have signed a letter calling for an independent investigation into the processes surrounding Professor Arday's appointment.

Cambridge said in a statement: “As has been widely reported, Jason Arday has resigned from his post at the university with immediate effect. Regardless of this, and for clarification, the university will continue to investigate the circumstances around Jason Arday's appointment and tenure. The findings will feed into a review of the process for the appointment of senior academic roles.

“In addition, and as previously stated, the university's Research Policy Committee will review the misconduct in research policy.”

Professor Arday said in his resignation letter that stepping down was the “only way to bring this chapter to an end”.

In the letter, addressed to colleagues and published on the Good Law Project's website, he wrote: “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.”

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