Jason Arday, a sociology of education professor at Cambridge University, is facing renewed scrutiny over his academic record and past claims, including an assertion that he appeared in the television series "Seven Up."
Footage from a 2022 talk at the University of Bath's Race Equality Taskforce shows Arday, who became Cambridge's youngest Black professor at 37, stating, "I was part of a programme which doesn't really exist any more, but was called Seven Up at the time." He described the program as one that "follow[s] you over the duration of your life, so they follow you at seven, 14, 21. I was pulled out of the project when I was 14."
The landmark "Seven Up" documentary series, which began in 1964, follows a group of individuals every seven years. The original participants would have been born in 1956 or 1957. Professor Arday was born in 1985, decades after the show's inception.
A source close to Professor Arday stated that his reference to "Seven Up" was not to the television series but to "a local community and parent-led initiative developed around the Ubuntu principle that 'it takes a village to raise a child.'" The initiative, organized by Black women, aimed to support Black mothers raising children with complex learning needs. The source added that the reference was used informally as shorthand and should be understood in its original context, not presented in isolation.
A BBC spokesperson confirmed that Professor Arday had no connection to their "Seven Up" films.
This latest controversy follows earlier allegations of plagiarism regarding Arday's 2015 PhD thesis. While Liverpool John Moores University cleared him of academic misconduct, critics have called for a new inquiry, citing numerous passages in his work that they allege are plagiarized. An investigation by The Guardian also cast doubt on his claim that a pig's head was sent to his home as part of a racist intimidation campaign, a claim that the Metropolitan Police denied investigating.
Arday, raised in south London by immigrant parents from Ghana, has spoken about overcoming significant challenges, including diagnoses of autism, dyslexia, and global developmental delay, and not becoming verbal until age 11. He has stated he learned to read and write at 18 before pursuing higher education, eventually earning a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University. He held positions at four universities before his appointment at Cambridge.