Prof Jason Arday said he had "concluded that the only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away".

The University of Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row has resigned "with immediate effect". Prof Jason Arday said he had "concluded that the only way to bring this chapter to an end is to step away". Earlier, the university said it had launched an investigation "following new information" about Arday's "academic qualifications and honorary appointments". It comes after another academic - self-defined "race realist" Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 - said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in Arday's work and questioned some of his stated achievements. The academic has admitted errors in his work, but has insisted he is not "a liar". In a statement posted by the Good Law Project on Wednesday, Arday said that being appointed professor had been "without question, the greatest professional privilege of my life". "The years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack," he said, adding "there comes a point when the personal cost becomes too great". He said his resignation should not "be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship or in the values that first brought me to Cambridge. "Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me."