Manchester chancellor to lead review of Cambridge Arday support

A former chief prosecutor will examine the support provided to Jason Arday prior to the professor’s death, the University of Cambridge has said.

Announcing more details of an independent review announced last month, prior to Arday’s resignation from the institution, vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice said it would have two parts: the first examining the support provided to Arday, and the other a broader review of processes and practice relating to his time at Cambridge.

The sociologist was found dead at his home in London on 14 August, having resigned on 5 August after being accused of plagiarising his PhD thesis while at Liverpool John Moores University and facing other questions about his academic work.

Prentice said that Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for North-west England, who now serves as chancellor of the University of Manchester, would lead the first part of the review, which was expected to report within three months.

Afzal said that his work would be “conducted independently and with urgency”.

“My responsibility will be to listen carefully, examine the evidence thoroughly and understand what support, interventions and protections were available to Professor Arday in the period before his death,” he said. “We must be willing to ask difficult questions, including whether more could and should have been done.”

Cambridge said its review would focus on identifying lessons to be learned and opportunities for improvement, and would not seek to investigate areas that will be examined by the inquest into Arday’s death.

It said a summary of the review’s findings and recommendations would be made public, subject to legal and privacy considerations.

The university said that the second part of the review would “consider the wider context of Professor Arday’s time at the university, including the recruitment of senior academic staff, mentoring and support arrangements, the university’s response to allegations of research misconduct, and the support available to academics who are subject to extraordinary public and media scrutiny”.

An external chair is currently being appointed, and the university said that they would lead an expert panel, “including individuals with lived experience”, to advise the review.

This part of the review is expected to conclude within six months of the panel’s formation.

Announcing the review, Prentice said that the time since Arday’s death had been “a period of profound sadness and reflection for the university”.

“We worked very hard to support Professor Arday during an appalling period of external criticism and focus, but given the devastating outcome, we are all asking ourselves whether we could have and should have done more. This review will answer that question,” she said.

“We are committed to ensuring that any recommendations arising from the review are addressed and adopted with clear accountability for delivering necessary changes.”

Speaking in the House of Lords on 3 September, skills minister Jacqui Smith said that Prentice had given her and education secretary Lucy Powell assurances that the review would be “independent and rigorous”.

Challenged by peers over whether Cambridge could be trusted to “mark [its] own homework”, Smith insisted that she was “more than just keeping an eye” on the issue.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com