Editorial: Cambridge professor debacle is a symptom of a wider problem in the UK

The row over how Jason Arday ended up in a top job in the University of Cambridge has done untold damage to the reputation of not just that institution, but British academia.

At 37, he was the youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship at Cambridge. This week, he stood down after plagiarism allegations – which he denies.

The resignation, Mr Arday said, should not be “mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me”. Yet it was those “narratives” that were his downfall.

Cambridge is now to review its process for hiring academics, but many of Mr Arday’s former peers are furious, and want an independent inquiry. Priyamvada Gopal, a professor of postcolonial studies is among them – arguing the university faces “massive reputational damage” over the affair.

The more that emerges about Mr Arday’s fantastical backstories, the more people are left wondering how on earth someone didn’t twig that something wasn’t quite right a lot sooner.

Hopefully the review will deal with the specific issues at Cambridge, but there needs to be a much wider look at how we deal with equality in the workplace.

It should be very simple: everyone is appointed on merit – and race, sex or sexuality doesn’t come into it. Unfortunately, attempts to address past wrongs in the workplace have gone way too far.

Often, the people who are most furious about the way Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is approached in UK workplaces are the very people who it is supposed to help. People who refuse to play the game and use their race or sexuality to get one up on their colleagues. People who believe in merit.

Whatever happened in Cambridge is a symptom of a much wider problem, which the government and society needs to face up to.