The University of Cambridge’s leaders deserve blame for the “grotesque racism unleashed” by Jason Arday’s appointment as professor, according to academics calling for the university to hold an independent inquiry.

The Guardian understands that senior dons at Cambridge are circulating a joint letter calling for an inquiry into the processes and circumstances around Arday being given the position, with many suggesting the university wanted a “quick fix” to improve the diversity of its staff.

Arday was appointed as professor of sociology of education in 2023 at the relatively young age of 37 and despite a slim track record of research and publications compared with those appointed to similar chairs at Cambridge.

Arday resigned on Wednesday after more than a week of public questions involving plagiarism in his PhD thesis and other publications, allegations of exaggerating his academic appointments, mounting controversy over his claims to have raised millions of pounds for charity, and lurid statements involving masked attackers and even a pig’s head delivered to his parents’ home in London.

Arday is preparing to publish his memoir in the US and UK in the coming days and told the Guardian that its publisher, Simon & Schuster, is to pay him “1.4 million” for his extraordinary backstory, which includes being unable to speak until he was 11 years old.

The group of Cambridge academics want any inquiry to include external members and be given independent status. They point to concerns over the appointment committee for Arday’s post, and to previous disputes within the university’s faculty of education where Arday was based.

Priyamvada Gopal, professor of postcolonial studies at Cambridge’s English faculty and one of the group organising the letter, said: “An independent investigation must scrutinise how such an early-career appointment to a very senior and prestigious professorial chair was made and what both the faculty of education and university management may have got very badly wrong.”

She added: “Whatever the results of any investigation, the university bears no little responsibility for the grotesque racism which this whole business has unleashed, and for the harm done both to the individual in the line of fire, to Black academics as a group, and the broader field of critical race studies.

“This requires accountability now from those responsible, not a cover-up.”

Other academics who spoke to the Guardian said they had been surprised by Arday’s appointment in 2023, with one sociologist admitting to never having heard of Arday before: “When it was announced I looked for his body of work, and it was disappointing to say the least.”

Gopal said Cambridge had been too tempted to “cut corners on the hard work of fostering equality and inclusion” by opting for a media-friendly appointment .

“The extent to which this appointment was paraded in the media by the university … raises questions about whether the university sought public kudos for itself rather than teaching and research from this appointment.

“It is highly unusual, to say the least, to appoint such an early-career academic to a very senior post,” Gopal said.

“Academic misconduct also needs more robust and transparent procedures in place, as more than one case at Cambridge indicates. The university must also pay attention to the consequences of putting young people of colour in highly visible places to carry the burden of representation before they are ready to withstand scrutiny.”

When the controversy first erupted, the university briefed journalists that it stood by its appointment process, and publicly defended Arday as “the victim of a vile campaign” to discredit him.

But on Wednesday night the university abruptly announced that it would open a fresh investigation after receiving “new information” about his qualifications and appointments.

Shortly afterwards Arday said he would resign, adding: “I no longer wish to feel as though I am living under a constant spotlight, where every aspect of my life is subject to public examination and judgment.”

The university and other organisations have since distanced themselves from Arday by deleting webpages and excising references, which one academic described as “wiping away the traces”. Jesus College, Cambridge, and the university’s faculty of education have taken down Arday’s staff profiles.

Arday had signed up to speakers’ bureaus and, since his Cambridge appointment, has addressed a number of commercial organisations, including the annual conference of the Association of British Insurers in 2025. A reference to Arday’s speech has since been deleted from the ABI website.

Simon & Schuster’s speakers bureau lists Arday as “an internationally sought-after speaker for industry conferences, corporate events, university lectures, and more, and has travelled across the United States for speaking engagements”.

In 2024 Arday was a keynote speaker at US National Association of Funeral Directors international convention in New Orleans. His subsequent appearances, however, may dry up: an appearance in Arizona promised for October this year has also been removed.