At the age of 37, former Merton College student Jason Arday has become the youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship at the University of Cambridge. If that’s not a significant achievement in itself, Prof Arday was diagnosed with autism and global development delay in his early years, unable to speak until he reached the age of 11 and could not read or write until he was 18. He was supported by Sandro Sandri, a Sports Lecturer who taught at Merton and was a mentor to him, and he finally began to read and write in his late teens. Prof Arday eventually went on to achieve a degree in Physical Education and Education Studies from the University of Surrey, before qualifying as a PE lecturer in higher education. He went on to gain two Masters and a PhD in Educational Studies.
After growing up in a relatively disadvantaged area and becoming a school teacher, Prof Arday had an insight into the barriers that young people belonging to ethnic minorities faced within education. He considered the idea of carrying out postgraduate study and Sandro encouraged this ambition. Despite finding it a challenge to become an academic, Prof Arday worked hard to study sociology and draft academic papers. After publishing his first paper in 2018, he secured a senior lectureship at Roehampton University before becoming an Associate Professor of Sociology at Durham University. Just three years later, Prof Arday became a Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow’s School of Education – and he was, at the time, one of the youngest professors in the UK.
Prof Arday will be starting his role as Professor of Sociology of Education at Cambridge on 6 March and he has a particular interest in improving the representation of ethnic minorities in higher education. Congratulations to Prof Arday on his fantastic achievement and we wish him well in his new role at Cambridge.
