Richard Dawkins

🚨BREAKING: CAF has commissioned an independent investigation into Cambridge’s appointment of Dr Jason Arday as its youngest ever black professor, amid growing professional disquiet over his academic record, the circumstances of his appointment, the University’s handling of concerns raised about his scholarship and, more recently, the scope and direction of Cambridge’s own inquiry. You can find out more here: ardayinvestigation.net/ The investigation will be chaired by Professor Swaran Preet Singh, Lord Singh of Solihull, a former Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission who previously led the independent investigation into allegations of discrimination within the Conservative Party. He will be joined by a distinguished panel comprising Harvard psychologist Professor Steven Pinker, UCL sociologist Professor Alice Sullivan, Cambridge historian Professor Robert Tombs and Labour peer Professor Maurice Glasman. Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Wallis, whose work helped expose the Post Office Horizon scandal, will lead the investigation with a dedicated research team. CAF has been contacted by numerous Cambridge academics who are deeply concerned that the University’s own investigation will fail to confront the wider institutional culture in which the Arday affair unfolded. Whether these concerns are justified is for the independent investigation to determine. But Cambridge is one of the world’s oldest and greatest universities, and what happens to its academic culture has implications for higher education as a whole. So we think it’s worth going the extra mile to make sure the right questions are asked and the right lessons learned. CAF strongly encourages current and former academics, students and other members of the University community, as well as others with relevant knowledge, to come forward with information. This might include policy documents, internal correspondence or first-hand accounts concerning Arday’s academic record and appointment, the University’s response to concerns about his scholarship and its treatment of those who raised them, and the operation of institutional policies relating to recruitment, promotion, academic misconduct, research integrity and EDI. Anyone wishing to contribute can contact the Investigator directly at: [email protected] The investigation website provides further guidance on submitting information, including arrangements for particularly sensitive material: ardayinvestigation.net/