Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has admitted his force "dropped the ball" by investigating a journalist examining claims about a University of Cambridge professor embroiled in a plagiarism row. Sir Mark agreed that he should apologise to journalist Jack Grove, stating the complaint should have been "screened out earlier on as not requiring investigation."
Mr Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education (THE), said he was told by the Met in early February that a complaint had been raised against him by Professor Jason Arday, and that he should not contact Professor Arday again. Mr Grove had been investigating allegations of plagiarism against Professor Arday since 2025 and had emailed him offering a right of reply.
Professor Arday, who resigned from Cambridge University on Wednesday, has admitted errors in his work and said he has faced "unrelenting" attack. Cambridge University opened an investigation on Tuesday into the 41-year-old, who became Cambridge's youngest black professor in 2023, following several stories making claims about the academic.
Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), which awarded Professor Arday his PhD in 2015, investigated plagiarism allegations made last year but did not uphold the charges.