Merged Arday life and death

[Ziggurat]

I suspect that, in the cold light of day, the various investigations will find that Arday's PhD dissertation was significantly plagiarised,

Maybe, maybe not. I don't think the exact extent matters too much here.

that most of his academic claims will be disproved,

Unlikely. I'm not sure any of his academic claims are even falsifiable. Which is its own problem, but not unique to him.

The real scandal here is not Arday's lies. The real scandal is an institution that elevated him without scrutiny.

 

[JayUtah]

I dare say when he visited the USA he described himself as a 'visiting professor' colloquially.

No.

In the U.S. academic system, Visiting Professor is a formally defined post. It means a temporary appointment to a non-tenure-track position.

 

[TragicMonkey]

No.

In the U.S. academic system, Visiting Professor is a formally defined post. It means a temporary appointment to a non-tenure-track position.

Maybe he said he was visiting a professor! *helpful noises*

 

[JayUtah]

Maybe he said he was visiting a professor! *helpful noises*

Or even, "Visiting—eh, professor?"

Obviously words said in passing can be colloquial in context. Ironically I visited Cambridge University as a tourist when I was also teaching at the University of Utah. In a certain colloquial sense I could have been considered a "visiting professor," but that's not at all accurate.

My understanding is that Arday explicitly claimed to have held visiting professorship posts at The Ohio State University (they insist on the article) and many other universities. This suggests he understood the meaning of the term and the nature of the claim. It was not merely something mentioned in passing or in a context that invited ambiguity.

 

[smartcooky]

He didn't say he appeared in the '60's/70's 7-up TV programme.

Why do you keep telling ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ lies all the time.

He was likely referring to a contemporary programme of the same name in his community circle. It's the name of a popular fizzy drink!!! Hardly esoteric.

Poppycock. He was documented as having claimed to have been IN THAT PROGRAM WHEN HE WAS 7 YEARS OLD. What ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ community circle do you think he was in?

He was a prolific runner.

He was a prolific liar and fantasist as well

Other marathon runners say his running claims are doable and not at all unusual.

Bull-◊◊◊◊, you're lying again
Running 600 miles in six days is a rare, elite feat in ultra-distance running that most recently made headlines due to an extraordinary verified athletic record by Megan Eckert.
No of Arday's feats of running he claims to have accomplished have been documented.

He was a professor at Glasgow.

Stop lying. Glasgow University denied he was ever a visiting professor.

I dare say when he visited the USA he described himself as a 'visiting professor' colloquially.

Rubbish. You have no ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ idea what you are talking about. For someone who claims to have a degree (what was it again, accounting?) you sure are missing a lot of knowledge you ought to have.

"Visiting Professor" is not some casual colloquial term... It is a specific term with a specific meaning. A Visiting Professor is a scholar, researcher, or expert from an external institution who temporarily visits a host university or college to teach classes, deliver lectures, or conduct joint research. These roles typically span a duration of a few months up to one or two years.
He was never a visiting professor at Glasgow Univeristy Ashe claimed.
He was never a visiti g professor at the Univeristy of Ohio as he claimed.
He lied about both.

There might well have been threats made to him.

He claimed he was attacked with a knife by an intruder at Cambridge.

Why are you so desperate to believe the far-right eugenicists without an iota of evidence?

Why are you so desperate to believe the far left wokesters and DEI sycophants that this guy was squeaky clean when the evidence is clear, unequivocal and overwhelming that Arday was a prolific liar, a fraud and a serial plagiarist.

What psychological comfort do you get from this person's public takedown? What crime did he ever commit?

I get no "psycholicagal comfort" , but I worked ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ hard to earn my degree, and it chaps my arse to see them given away like a plastic toy in a ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ Corn Flakes packet to people who lied and cheated off fellow academics to get one.

But yeah, you prefer to believe anonymous haters and bots.

The reporter who investigated Arday and found his wrongdoing is not an anonymous haters or a bot.
None of the sources I have linked and/or quoted are anonymous haters or bots.

 

[smartcooky]

No.

In the U.S. academic system, Visiting Professor is a formally defined post. It means a temporary appointment to a non-tenure-track position.

Same in the UK although the funding structure is somewhat different

 

[a_unique_person]

People reported on a major scandal, where a plagiarist and fabulist was elevated to high rank by a prestigious university, clearly without consideration for the lack of qualifications and surfeit of fakery in his CV.

That's the "pile on" you keep referring to. Legitimate reporting of a real news story. There is no moral principle that reporters should refrain from reporting a story, for fear of a "pile on". Stop trying to implicate the press in this.

Arday took his life because he chose to take his life. This choice he made because apparently he couldn't cope with being found out. That's his business.

If he was white it wouldn't have been such a global circus. Academics regularly fall from grace and are forgotten. This was all about the culture wars.

 

[smartcooky]

I doubt it.

Again, PhD committees don't examine biographical claims. They never examined how many marathons he ran. They never examined whether he was a visiting professor at Ohio State.

Its pretty clear to me that Vixen has never undergone viva voce, otherwise she would already know all that. IIRC, you have a degree, so you will know what I am talking about.

For those who haven't, it is all about your thesis. The examiners have read it, thoroughly understand it, and they are now determined to pick it apart, piece by bloody piece to test your knowledge of your work. It is the most rigorous, most exacting oral exam you are ever likely to face. It probably makes being interrogated as a suspect by the Police look like a picnic in the park.

I don't remember much about the details my thesis defence, at least in the way of the actual questions asked (it was over 40 years ago) I do remember having to answer rapid fire, complex questions as fast as they came at me, and I had to keep that up for over three hours. But I will never forget how it made me feel afterwards... mentally drained, emotionally shattered and physically, like I had been dragged backwards by the feet through a hawthorn hedge.

 

[zooterkin]

Its pretty clear to me that Vixen has never undergone viva voce, otherwise she would already know all that. IIRC, you have a degree, so you will know what I am talking about.

For those who haven't, it is all about your thesis. The exminers have read it, thoroughly understand it, and they are now determined to pick it apart, piece by bloody piece. It is the most rigorous, most exacting oral exam you are ever likely to face. It probably makes being interrogated as a suspect by the Police look like a picnic in the park.

I don't remember much about the details my thesis defence, at least in the way of the actual questions asked (it was over 40 years ago) I do remember having to answer rapid fire, complex questions as fast as they came at me, and I had to keep that up for over three hours. But I will never forget how it made me feel afterwards... mentally drained, emotionally shattered and physically, like I had been dragged backwards by the feet through a hawthorn hedge.

Vivas aren't common for first degrees here.

 

[Nessie]

My father, a retired university lecturer, has had a look at some of Arday's work and the claims of plagiarism and he thinks what Arday presented would not have fallen foul of such accusations. My father did say he would have asked for some tidying up and better referencing, but he would not have regarded it as a plagiarism.

 

[malbui]

Its pretty clear to me that Vixen has never undergone viva voce, otherwise she would already know all that. IIRC, you have a degree, so you will know what I am talking about.

For those who haven't, it is all about your thesis. The examiners have read it, thoroughly understand it, and they are now determined to pick it apart, piece by bloody piece to test your knowledge of your work. It is the most rigorous, most exacting oral exam you are ever likely to face. It probably makes being interrogated as a suspect by the Police look like a picnic in the park.

I don't remember much about the details my thesis defence, at least in the way of the actual questions asked (it was over 40 years ago) I do remember having to answer rapid fire, complex questions as fast as they came at me, and I had to keep that up for over three hours. But I will never forget how it made me feel afterwards... mentally drained, emotionally shattered and physically, like I had been dragged backwards by the feet through a hawthorn hedge.

I still have cold sweat nightmares about my private PhD defence. Three and a half hours of grilling, which started with one of the external experts (panel of five in CH) asking me if there was not a logical inconsistency between something I’d written on page 46 and something I’d written on page 212. And it went downhill from there.

 

[Matthew Best]

My father, a retired university lecturer, has had a look at some of Arday's work and the claims of plagiarism and he thinks what Arday presented would not have fallen foul of such accusations. My father did say he would have asked for some tidying up and better referencing, but he would not have regarded it as a plagiarism.

I personally don't have an opinion on his alleged plagiarism - I'm just not qualified to say whether what looks like plagiarism to a layman is considered plagiarism in the context of academia.

But all the other tall tales he told about his life are laughable on their face and I can definitely come to a decision about whether I believe them or not. And because those stories conflict with other stories he also told, I don't believe it's even possible to say you believe them all.

 

[lionking]

Vivas aren't common for first degrees here.

Nor in Australia. It’s not felt necessary, even for Master degrees - most are completed by coursework.

 

[Rolfe]

Vivas aren't common for first degrees here.

Are you distinguishing between the hours-long grilling of the PhD oral exam, and the ten or fifteen minute oral with a panel of internal examiners plus the external you have to do for each subject all the way through an undergraduate degree? Because the latter is standard. And it can get quite rigorous if a candidate is borderline.

(In fact I had several oral exams each year on the way to my first degree, but never had a PhD oral because the external examiner, somewhat unusually, told the university - Glasgow - that he was satisfied by my thesis and didn't require one.)

 

[Rolfe]

I personally don't have an opinion on his alleged plagiarism - I'm just not qualified to say whether what looks like plagiarism to a layman is considered plagiarism in the context of academia.

But all the other tall tales he told about his life are laughable on their face and I can definitely come to a decision about whether I believe them or not. And because those stories conflict with other stories he also told, I don't believe it's even possible to say you believe them all.

I haven't read the thesis and don't intend to. Others who have say that leaving aside the allegations of plagiarism it was vacuous waffle. This is a massive problem across many universities these days. I'm with Smartcookie in being disgusted by the devaluation of the degree.

And that my own university employed this fraud as a full professor at an age when most lecturers are merely dreaming of promotion to senior lecturer status is particularly galling.

 

[smartcooky]

Vivas aren't common for first degrees here.

Well maybe not in soft degrees like Arts or Social Sciences, but I'd be shocked if they werent de-rigeur in and if the hard degrees in engineering or the sciences

 

[smartcooky]

Nor in Australia. It’s not felt necessary, even for Master degrees - most are completed by coursework.

They were for mine at Monash.

 

[zooterkin]

Are you distinguishing between the hours-long grilling of the PhD oral exam, and the ten or fifteen minute oral with a panel of internal examiners plus the external you have to do for each subject all the way through an undergraduate degree? Because the latter is standard. And it can get quite rigorous if a candidate is borderline.

(In fact I had several oral exams each year on the way to my first degree, but never had a PhD oral because the external examiner, somewhat unusually, told the university - Glasgow - that he was satisfied by my thesis and didn't require one.)

I had no such oral with a panel of examiners for either of my degrees, and have not heard of anyone else doing it either. Is it a Scottish thing?

 

[Darat]

Are we talking about bachelor's degrees? If so I've never heard of anyone having an oral examination apart from language students.

 

[Matthew Best]

I haven't read the thesis and don't intend to. Others who have say that leaving aside the allegations of plagiarism it was vacuous waffle. This is a massive problem across many universities these days.

If it's a massive problem across many universities, then it seems unfair to focus on just one person. That's why I'm only really considering his fabulising about his life story,, which was egregious.