U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White on Friday condemned the decision made by Ghent University to suspend researcher Nathan Cofnas over his plagiarism accusations against Jason Arday.
White said on the social platform X the decision made by the university to put Cofnas under investigation was “retaliation against an American scholar following his accurate whistleblower reporting on academic fraud.”
The ambassador also announced, “We are therefore reviewing any relationships we have with Ghent University.”
“Dishonest, corrupt institutions that engage in, or reward, scapegoating mob behavior are not desirable partners for us,” White stated.
Arday was in the news in 2023 when Cambridge University hailed him as the youngest Black professor in the institution’s history. Three years later, Arday was accused in the news of plagiarizing his academic work, which he denied.
He was found dead Aug. 14 in his South London home.
Cofnas, a former Cambridge researcher who left the university after his remarks about diversity programs and minorities sparked widespread protests, said in a July 21 article that he had found evidence of Arday’s plagiarism.
“Many passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source,” he wrote about Arday’s 2015 dissertation.
He added that retired Plymouth Marjon University professor Dave Harris had raised concerns about Arday allegedly plagiarizing subsequent academic articles, which caused two academic journals to issue corrections.
Ghent University notified the public Thursday that a staff member was under “preliminary disciplinary investigation” and had been suspended as a precaution. The university declined to give details “in order to safeguard the confidentiality of the personnel file and the disciplinary proceedings.”
Cofnas said Thursday on social media he was under investigation by Ghent University “for discriminating against Arday.”
Rector Petra De Sutter and vice rector Herwig Reynaert shared in a statement on Thursday about Arday’s death that “Ghent University stands for respect for human dignity and opposes discrimination, hatred and racism.”
“We attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic debate, even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is not unlimited,” they said.
Ghent University did not respond to The Hill’s request for immediate comment.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.