As Twitchy reported on Monday, thousands attended a vigil for Jason Arday, the youngest black professor in Cambridge University history, after he committed suicide. As our own Gordon K reported, academics and politicians blamed racism and a right-wing press that hounded him over revelations that his PhD thesis was heavily plagiarized and he'd fabricated huge chunks of his biography. As Townhall's Amy Curtis wrote, Arday said he ran 30 marathons in 35 days, that he didn't learn to read or write until he was 18 due to autism, and that he had to relearn his dissertation following brain surgery. He resigned from Cambridge on August 5, facing claims of plagiarism. One woman claimed that racists had "achieved an indirect lynching" of Arday.
The biology professor who exposed Arday's plagiarism, Nathan Confas, said on Thursday that he was under investigation by Ghent University, his employer.
I am under investigation by my university for discriminating against Arday pic.twitter.com/mOyUPh2Y0B
— Nathan Cofnas (@nathancofnas) August 20, 2026
Ghent University Rector Petra De Sutter (who is trans, by the way) released a statement saying Ghent "stands for respect for human dignity and opposes discrimination, hatred and racism" and believes in open academic debate, but that freedom "goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others."
Well, that investigation didn't take long:
I was just suspended by Ghent University. They will almost certainly fire me.
— Nathan Cofnas (@nathancofnas) August 20, 2026
The decision was made by rector Petra De Sutter, a former leader of the Green Party.
Should we start investigating Petra De Sutter for plagiarism?
— Galton Rolling in His Grave (@galtontheroller) August 20, 2026
She used ChatGPT to write her inaugural speech. It was full of fabricated quotes.
— Nathan Cofnas (@nathancofnas) August 20, 2026
Andy Ngo has been following the story:
As punishment for American academic @nathancofnas being the first to report publicly that Jason Arday’s DEI research was full of plagiarism, Ghent University, where he is a researcher, announced he is being investigated.
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) August 20, 2026
The person who announced the investigation is the trans…
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… rector. He was recently forced to admit that a speech he gave at the university was written with AI and included fake quotes.
So the fake woman who used AI and fake quotes in a speech has launched an investigation into someone who said the emperor has no clothes. How ironic.
— Jay Varney (@MSOSheriffJay) August 20, 2026
@nathancofnas is not the target. Any future @nathancofnas is. We are all being told that tolerating corruption is the safe course of action. The threat of retaliation is enough to keep most people in line.
— truthwillsetyoufree (@truthwi58194909) August 20, 2026
This is a public display of Leftist power in Britain. By punishing those who dare challenge them, the Left shows who rules Britain. It’s America’s future, unless we act soon.
— Fabius Maximus (Ed.) (@FabiusMaximus01) August 20, 2026
Shooting the messenger has never been a particularly ethical practice.
— BBQPossum (@BBQ_Possum) August 20, 2026
Could be end of the whole ridiculous edifice. Just might be.
— John Williams (@johnbawilliams) August 20, 2026
This is how the Left projects power. They will brutally bend and twist truth and decency in pursuit of their narratives.
— Jean Claude Boudoir (@BoudoirJean) August 20, 2026
Richard Dawkins, with whom this editor rarely agrees, posted a salient post:
I am bewildered, and not very impressed, by the visceral, naked, irrational hatred spat out by some defenders of Jason Arday. If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not,…
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) August 19, 2026
… depending on the evidence. The correct question to ask is not, ”What is the colour of his skin?” but “Is it in fact true that he is an unqualified charlatan?” Please examine the evidence before leaping to the assumption of racism.
As for the idea that journalists “piled in on him” and “hounded him to his death”, most attacks were against Cambridge University. Jason himself was widely regarded as an unfortunate victim of foolish promotion way beyond his ability to cope. In appointing him to a professorship for which he was manifestly unqualified – in ludicrously describing him as “the best in the world” – certain senior members of the university showed a level of patronising condescension towards black people that could fairly be described as racism, while at the same time making him tragically vulnerable to such attacks as came his way.
As Curtis reported for Townhall, after being exposed, Arday sicced police on a journalist investigating his bogus claims. "Jack Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education (THE), was investigated by Scotland Yard for doing his job. Arday apparently knew exactly what to say to police, too, telling them the investigation was harming his mental health and he was being harassed." The investigation into Grove lasted four months, and Arday's lawyers sent a letter to THE claiming Grove's investigation was "racially motivated."
And now the legitimate professor with actual credentials who exposed the fraud has been suspended.
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