Jason Arday, the University of Cambridge professor of sociology of education, is facing plagiarism allegations after a blog this week compared his PhD thesis with another student's work. The row became public on the eve of the publication of his autobiography.
One analysis identified more than 100 passages in his 401-page thesis that were identical or nearly identical to Paula Zwozdiak-Myers's 2009 thesis. Arday's thesis mentions Zwozdiak-Myers 17 times, and the comparison placed the two texts side by side for readers to inspect.
Jason Arday and Paula Zwozdiak-Myers
Arday became a Cambridge professor at 37 and was described as the youngest black professor in Cambridge's history. He was non-verbal until the age of 11 and only learnt to read and write at 18 before later obtaining a degree and a doctorate and building a career in teaching.
His thesis, titled 'An exploration of peer-monitoring among student teachers' [sic] to inform reflective practice within the context of action research', is now the document at the centre of the dispute. The comparison with Zwozdiak-Myers's thesis, 'An analysis of the concept reflective practice and an investigation into the development of student teachers' reflective practice within the context of action research', is what pushed the allegations into public view.
University of Cambridge response
Both the University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University said Arday had done nothing wrong. Cambridge said he had been the victim of a 'vile campaign to undermine his credibility'.
That response sits alongside the public comparison that prompted fresh scrutiny, leaving academics and readers with the same practical issue: whether the matching passages were treated as legitimate citation, or whether the similarities cross the line into plagiarism.
Liverpool John Moores University review
Some academics urged Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University to look again at the thesis comparison. The pressure now falls on the two universities, because their earlier position has not answered how they assessed the similarities in the 2016 PhD awarded by Liverpool John Moores University.
For Arday, the dispute has moved beyond a private academic complaint and into a public test of how his thesis will be judged against the comparison now circulating. The next issue is not the biography itself, but whether either university decides to reopen the review after the side-by-side analysis.
