Cambridge Appoints Nazir Afzal to Lead Jason Arday Death Review
Cambridge has asked Nazir Afzal — the former chief crown prosecutor who led the Rochdale grooming prosecutions — to lead the first part of an independent review into the death of Professor Jason Arday, who died last month, nine days after resigning amid plagiarism allegations he denied. “We are all asking ourselves whether we could have and should have done more,” said the vice-chancellor. “This review will answer that question.” Mr Afzal promised work conducted “independently and with urgency”.
Universities investigating themselves rarely convince, which is why the choice of reviewer is the story: Mr Afzal’s reputation was built prosecuting institutions’ comfortable silences, and his appointment signals Cambridge understands that the question — what a world-leading institution did and did not do for a professor in the nine days between resignation and death — cannot be answered by its own machinery. The case sits at the intersection of several live wounds: how plagiarism allegations are investigated and publicised, what duty of care survives a resignation, and the particular scrutiny borne by Professor Arday as one of the country’s most prominent Black academics, whose route from a working-class Clapham childhood to a Cambridge chair made him a symbol institutions were quick to celebrate. Watch the terms of reference for part two — scope is where reviews are won or lost.