Very happy to have been shortlisted in the Specialist Journalism category in this year's British Journalism Awards for my investigation into Cambridge University professor Jason Arday and the extensive plagiarism in his PhD thesis #BJA2026

Long read: Former universities minister Jo Johnson says the HE sector’s financial crisis will worsen unless ministers get on with legislating for annual fee rises. But 10 years on from introducing the Higher Education and Research Act, he tells @jgro_the that it is right to put ont and centre in a high-fees era #highered #tuitionfees
timeshighereducation.com/depth/jo-johns…

For people who are saying that Jason Arday has been cleared of plagiarism, I’d suggest two things:

1. Ask who has done that ‘clearing’, and how disinterested are they likely to be?
2. Have a look at Dave Harris’s files here, and see if you are then confident there is no plagiarism.

arasite.org/plagmenu.html

Shortlist for #BJA2026 Specialist Journalism category. Delighted to be recognised alongside @DanNeidle @zoetidman @ShaymaBakht @Steve_Farrell_ @Lees_Martina @zoetidman @AaronWala @DalmeetS

The difference between a scientist (me) and a publicist is that a scientist looks at all of the evidence and comes to a conclusion. The goal of a publicist is to convince you of something by persuading you to believe it even if it isn't true. #Indiana State Senate District 23

RT @timeshighered: .@timeshighered journalist @jgro_the, who investigated PhD thesis of late Cambridge professor Jason Arday, is in the run…

Shortlist for #BJA2026 Specialist Journalism category. Delighted to be recognised alongside @DanNeidle @zoetidman @ShaymaBakht @Steve_Farrell_ @Lees_Martina @zoetidman @AaronWala @DalmeetS

Recognition from fellow journalists is much appreciated as this is undoubtedly a difficult and polarising story, with a tragic outcome. Many people still do not accept its legitimacy but it was an important public interest story which sparked public debate about key issues of our age timeshighereducation.com/opinion/i-was-…

Can the ERC cope with a 60% increase in applications to its Starting Grants scheme in 2027? Almost twice as many applications as in 2025, with only 373 grants on offer (5% predicted success rate)

My long read from May on why peer review system is creaking (usually seven to eight reviewers on selection panels) and AI is helping applicants to increase quality of funding bids timeshighereducation.com/depth/if-erc-v…

This is amazing: Byline Times has responded to Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s scathing account of their false claims that Jason Arday has been “cleared” of plagiarism charges. They said they added a note to the article, which said that a single journal article of his used to have a t it was under investigation and now doesn’t anymore. But the journal has refused to comment on what this means.

Prescod-Weinstein tore into the publication, saying: “It’s troubling that not one person saw the problem here, even as it went into VERY wide circulation.

“There is still no explanation of the timeline, what exactly was said, and whether this was an article that had previously been edited. Was he cleared of plagiarism or did they think the first round of edits to address it were sufficient? Those are two different things.

“As a Black academic who has written extensively about racism in academia, I don’t appreciate our stories being treated cavalierly or being used for clicks on a piece that is actually focused on something else — the right wing. Let them be their own hook.

“If your position is that Arday was mistreated by the press, and it’s clear you’ve got a target on The Times, then you should be modeling the editorial standards you’re accusing others of not having. You should be asking experts familiar with those journals about their experiences with those notices.

“You also could have looked for other articles that received similar notices and compared them.”

"Theranos & Cambridge are the players here; Holmes and Arday are just pieces on the board”

The real story is not the individuals who deceive, but the powerful institutions that enable, legitimize & protect them

Insightful from Andrew Gelman on substack

statmodeling.substack.com/p/why-i-talk-a…

A basic tenet of journalism is to provide sources

Are there reports in the public domain that clear Jason Arday? If so, cite them

Assertions are not evidence; transparency requires verifiable sources

Any inquiry should be carried out by independent regulator @officestudents

The case of Mike Ryder at Lancaster University may become a test case for HEFSA’s complaints scheme.

What some, including some university administrators and HR people, fail to understand is the extent to which academic freedom involves the privileging of attempts to find the truth over all over objectives. Those include the reputation of one’s institution or colleagues.

I have heard academics say that senior academics should not criticise the work of junior ones, and that their role is to be supportive and mentoring instead. I don’t accept that at all where such roles have not been formally enshrined. Nor that a white academic cannot criticise the work of a black one, a man that of a woman, and so on. The critiques must focus on the nature of the work, not the egos of those behind it. And if the work of marketing departments can be argued to be not up to scratch or ineffective, that is their problem, not with the one who argues it. (1)

timeshighereducation.com/news/universit…

Lancaster University lecturer is facing a formal investigation after criticising "absurd advertising" by his institution (and other unis). “To be put under suspicion for .. just talking about marketing, which is my job ... is absolutely insane,” he says timeshighereducation.com/news/universit…

Academic @RobotTheory, who criticised universities’ marketing efforts as “bad”, is under investigation by his institution after fellow staff members raised complaints #highered #freespeech #marketing
timeshighereducation.com/news/universit…

🧵Arif Ahmed, Director for #FreeSpeech and #AcademicFreedom at @officestudents , gave the Keynote at the Conflict on Campus event organised by @SimonFanshawe & @Sparemu today.

3/ AA on universities' purpose & core principles. Nice that he also said that lawful speech must be protected, ESPECIALLY if offensive or unpopular.

2/ AA: Universities' purpose makes ECHR article 10(1) particularly germane. Adamant that #AcademicFreedom is not confined to an academic's discipline. And academics have the right to criticise their own institution.

Senior academic leaders risk chilling free speech on campus by signing open letters in support of political causes because this could be mistaken as representing an institution’s official position, England’s academic freedom tsar Arif Ahmed has said. @jgro_the reports peech
timeshighereducation.com/news/ahmed-war…