{"id":33982,"date":"2026-08-22T15:09:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/33982\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T15:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:09:48","slug":"university-suspends-academic-who-accused-arday-of-plagiarism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/33982\/","title":{"rendered":"University Suspends Academic Who Accused Arday of Plagiarism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The university has suspended Cofnas from his post as a postdoctoral researcher in its\u00a0Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences.<\/p>\n

Arterra\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s\u00a0Ghent University\u00a0has suspended Nathan Cofnas, the controversial scholar whose blog accusing Jason Arday of plagiarism led to widespread public scrutiny of the late\u00a0University of Cambridge\u00a0professor\u2019s academic record and personal achievements.<\/p>\n

Ghent said in a statement that it has launched \u201ca preliminary disciplinary investigation\u201d into Cofnas,\u00a0a postdoctoral researcher in its\u00a0Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of this process, the university is assessing whether there are sufficient grounds to refer the case to the competent disciplinary body for further consideration,\u201d it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPending this preliminary investigation, Ghent University has suspended the staff member as a precautionary measure. The university cannot comment further on the specific details of the disciplinary case or the underlying arguments, in order to safeguard the confidentiality of the personnel file and the disciplinary proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month Cofnas, a self-described \u201crace realist,\u201d accused Arday of\u00a0plagiarizing parts of his Ph.D. thesis at\u00a0Liverpool John Moores University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arday\u00a0resigned from Cambridge on Aug. 5<\/a>. He\u00a0denied the plagiarism allegations but acknowledged errors in his work.\u00a0Liverpool John Moores investigated and concluded that his Ph.D. should stand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week the former sociology professor\u00a0was found dead in London<\/a>. The cause of his death is unknown. Police have said it is being treated as unexpected but is not believed to be suspicious.<\/p>\n

Cofnas acknowledged on X that he had been suspended by the university. \u201cThey will almost certainly fire me,\u201d he said. \u201cThe decision was made by rector Petra De Sutter, a former leader of the Green Party.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The suspension comes after Ghent said that following Arday\u2019s death it had \u201creceived many enquiries\u201d about Cofnas\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic debate, even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is not unlimited. It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others,\u201d Ghent said in its statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this reason, the university takes the recent public statements made by a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University regarding this matter very seriously. Ghent University has decided to take appropriate action within its powers and the applicable framework.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March,\u00a0more than 300 staff and students\u00a0wrote an open letter to the university<\/a>, questioning the appointment of Cofnas and accusing Ghent of violating its code of conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, the university defended the decision, saying that Cofnas \u201cwas selected as the most suitable candidate following a procedurally correct and duly conducted selection process.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The university has suspended Cofnas from his post as a postdoctoral researcher in its\u00a0Department of Philosophy and Moral…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,10916,897,3480,18421,10370,144],"class_list":["post-33982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-career","tag-education","tag-events","tag-higher","tag-jobs","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117139797833337762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}