Article contentStar Cambridge University prof Jason Arday has a compelling story: born with autism, he says he was non-verbal until 11 years old, yet achieved a doctorate by 30. But now he has been credibly accused of plagiarizing large parts of his PhD thesis and accusations of racism are being thrown at his accusers. “Perhaps there’s at least an implicit message here that we value identity over aptitude at least a wee bit too much,” Selley suggests.