- "The right are celebrating the fall of Cambridge professor Jason Arday with the glee of a colonial hunting party that has just blasted a lone creature into oblivion."

- "As to Arday’s other no doubt exaggerated achievements, there is little new here either. There is a small industry of people who, for money, will help you lie convincingly. They say you must embellish your CV because all your competitors are doing it—and it’s the only way to get a job."

- "If all university professors—the vast majority of whom are white—were subject to the same spotlight, many would emerge as liars and plagiarists."

- "Arday’s failing was not that he lied, but that he didn’t lie convincingly enough."

https://socialistworker.co.uk/anti-racism/jason-arday-the-right-wants-to-make-unis-echo-chambers-for-their-ideas/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5891012&forum_id=2�id.#50055525)

https://unherd.com/newsroom/jason-arday-taught-me-heres-what-i-learnt/?edition=us

https://archive.is/EEfUF#selection-465.0-465.44

Jason Arday taught me. Here’s what I learned

BY FIONA BROWN

The song lyrics were the first red flag. The way he’d ramble about Tinie Tempah or Eminem, or how black artists like Beyoncé were sexualized by white men, without offering any evidence to substantiate his claims. Or else there were the film clips, from Fish Tank and Kidulthood, which he’d tell us to discuss without offering guidance on how to do so. And this was if he was even in the classroom at all. He often arrived late and left early, once teaching for a single hour when four were scheduled.

So when I saw Jason Arday’s name in the news, my first thought was: “finally!” As a student on the Education module Arday taught at the University of Roehampton, back in autumn 2018, a module replete with music but shockingly light on education, I can’t help but have thoughts on the story that’s unfolded over the last couple of weeks. For me, though, the real surprise is that it didn’t all come out sooner.

Before Arday arrived at Roehampton, university leaders enthusiastically told us of his amazing backstory: how he only learned to speak at 11 and write at 18, and how excited they were to have him teaching us. Naturally, we were all very interested to see the man himself, even if the module he’d be teaching had been written by a previous lecturer.

I can honestly describe Arday’s teaching as terrible. He rarely used the PowerPoint slides. Instead, he usually sat casually on a desk, giving his generalized views on racism without ever referring to any academic theories — let alone those relevant to the “Youth Participation and Identities” module he was supposed to be teaching.

But even more than his lectures, what really disappointed me was how Arday failed his students. Roehampton is a very diverse university, both in terms of racial background and neurodiversity, and takes inclusion seriously. More than two-thirds of the class were either black or from other non-white backgrounds. Most were women, and most had come straight from sixth form as the first member of their families to attend university.

At first, my classmates were charmed by Arday’s cheerful attitude and inspirational stories. To start with, too, they were interested in his claims that white people were guilty of every kind of prejudice. Yet as the module progressed, and he failed to turn up for yet another class, things began to change. It gradually dawned on us that we were learning nothing of substance, and that much of his talk was nonsense.

When it came to our assessment, Arday recommended we answer one of the two essay questions — there were four options — that mentioned ethnicity. This, after all, was the only thing he’d talked to us about. I remember one young, black, female student coming to me in the library as we began to draft our essays and saying: “I don’t know what to do, I’ve read my notes and there is nothing there I can use!” She wasn’t the only one, and I offered advice as best I could, writing my own essay using the online resources Arday’s predecessor had left.

In the end, Arday gave me 70% for my essay. That sounds good — except that my average for the year was 75%, meaning my overall result was dragged down. Particularly as Arday had given my work no feedback, I asked for a meeting. At Roehampton, marking is blind, so he wouldn’t have known who’d written which essay. In our meeting, I explained that 70% was a low mark for me and asked him to provide feedback. Suddenly, his friendly, confident demeanor changed. I now saw a side of him I’d never seen before: angry, but also scared. Arday implied that I was racist, and said that the only reason I wasn’t happy with 70% was due to my “white privilege”. He was clearly upset at being questioned, and I ended the meeting as quickly as possible.

Arday left Roehampton shortly afterwards, and I never saw him again. Given that he could neither teach nor support his students, it’s little wonder that he appeared psychologically incapable of coping with criticism. The University of Roehampton was seemingly aware of his failings yet did nothing, avoiding controversy by allowing him to move on to another set of students.

Indeed, if any one of the universities Arday had taught at before being appointed to Cambridge had been prepared to point out that the emperor had no clothes, he might never have faced the humiliations of the past two weeks. Some serious soul-searching must surely follow from all the academics who enabled him to climb the academic ladder. Did they really help this young man, or were they only thinking of their own reputations? They might also spare a thought for all his students.

I’m reminded here of the tale of the Post Turtle, where a farmer finds a turtle stuck on a fencepost. “That Post Turtle didn’t get up there by himself,” the farmer says. “He doesn’t belong there, and you wonder who put him there. He has no idea what to do while he’s up there, and having been elevated beyond his ability to function, he’s never going to get anything done while he is there.” He adds: “You just want to help the poor bugger get down, and you can’t help but wonder what kind of idiot put him up there in the first place.” It’s a question Arday’s many backers may now wish to ask.

Fiona Brown is a pseudonym for a former student at the University of Roehampton.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5891012&forum_id=2�id.#50057154)