August 10, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Jason Arday taught me. Here’s what I learned.

At first, my classmates were charmed by Arday’s cheerful attitude and inspirational stories. To start with, too, they were interested in his claims that white people were guilty of every kind of prejudice. Yet as the module progressed, and he failed to turn up for yet another class, things began to change. It gradually dawned on us that we were learning nothing of substance, and that much of his talk was nonsense.

When it came to our assessment, Arday recommended we answer one of the two essay questions — there were four options — that mentioned ethnicity. This, after all, was the only thing he’d talked to us about. I remember one young, black, female student coming to me in the library as we began to draft our essays and saying: “I don’t know what to do, I’ve read my notes and there is nothing there I can use!” She wasn’t the only one, and I offered advice as best I could, writing my own essay using the online resources Arday’s predecessor had left.

In the end, Arday gave me 70% for my essay. That sounds good — except that my average for the year was 75%, meaning my overall result was dragged down. Particularly as Arday had given my work no feedback, I asked for a meeting. At Roehampton, marking is blind, so he wouldn’t have known who’d written which essay. In our meeting, I explained that 70% was a low mark for me and asked him to provide feedback. Suddenly, his friendly, confident demeanor changed. I now saw a side of him I’d never seen before: angry, but also scared. Arday implied that I was racist, and said that the only reason I wasn’t happy with 70% was due to my “white privilege”. He was clearly upset at being questioned, and I ended the meeting as quickly as possible.

Arday left Roehampton shortly afterwards, and I never saw him again. Given that he could neither teach nor support his students, it’s little wonder that he appeared psychologically incapable of coping with criticism. The University of Roehampton was seemingly aware of his failings yet did nothing, avoiding controversy by allowing him to move on to another set of students.

Still though, students of Arday will have learned a lot about where not to place apostrophes in their thesis titles:

And how to copy and paste your way to superstardom:

Arday himself claimed to have worried, “What if I have completely overestimated my capabilities? What if my story ends up being a cautionary tale like Icarus about flying too close to the sun?”

But it must have been quite a rush at the apogee of his ascent: “Whether or not he even knows it, Jason Arday played the rotten, elitist, box-ticking, minority and sick note obsessed education regime brilliantly. He outwitted the cleverest people in Britain – well, people who like to think they’re clever. He outsmarted those who would have us believe they’re the enlightened and have the right to rule. People who opine that vaccination should be mandatory. That was an actual Cambridge Union debate a few years ago, never let us forget. Bright young things lined up to argue for an end to bodily autonomy. These people are numbskulls. So never mind Arday’s grammar, consider the grand sweep of his achievement. He has shown us that the emperor has no clothes. One way or another, he has had Cambridge over, and I care not a jot for Cambridge as a victim, nor do I care for the buyer’s regret of the liberal elite who suddenly claim to be shocked that a person who can’t always spell or get grammar right could rise to the top of academia by playing on certain narratives.”

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll