Jason Arday accuser Nathan Cofnas suspended at Ghent

Nathan Cofnas, the US academic who led plagiarism allegations against former Cambridge professor Jason Arday, has been suspended by Ghent University while it considers disciplinary action over public statements linked to the case.

Cofnas wrote on X: “I was just suspended by Ghent University. They will almost certainly fire me.” Ghent University did not name him in its statement, but said it had opened a preliminary disciplinary investigation into a postdoctoral researcher involved in the furore and had suspended him as a precautionary measure.

Ghent said it was assessing whether there were sufficient grounds to launch full disciplinary proceedings.

Arday, who became Cambridge University's youngest-ever Black professor when he was appointed in 2023, was found dead on August 14 at age 41. He had resigned on August 5 amid allegations that he plagiarised parts of his doctoral thesis and exaggerated some personal achievements. Arday had disputed the allegations, which had not been resolved before his death.

Cofnas, who describes himself as a “race realist” and was sacked from his Cambridge post two years ago, said last month that he had found numerous instances of plagiarism in Arday's work. The case then received widespread media coverage in Britain and the United States.

In a statement on Wednesday, Ghent University said it was shocked by Arday's death and took very seriously public statements made by its researcher about the former professor. Rector Petra De Sutter and vice-rector Herwig Reynaert said the university stood for human dignity and opposed discrimination, hatred and racism, while also valuing academic freedom and open debate.

“However, that freedom is not unlimited,” they said. “It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others.”