Jason Arday, illiterate until 18, becomes youngest black Cambridge professor

Jason Arday

(Image credit: University of Cambridge )

published 2 March 2023

A sociologist who could not read or write until he was 18 has been appointed the University of Cambridge’s youngest black professor. Jason Arday, 37, was diagnosed with autism and global development delay as a child, and raised in a deprived part of Clapham in southwest London. He couldn’t talk until he was 11, but went on to get two GCSEs and a degree in physical education and education studies. He received his PhD in 2016, and will begin his new job at Cambridge’s faculty of education next week. “If we want to make education more inclusive, the best tools we have are solidarity, understanding and love,” he said.

Rod Stewart funds hospital mobile scanning unit

Rod Stewart has cut waiting lists for scans at his local hospital in Essex by 10%, by funding a mobile scanning unit for a day. In January, the singer had called a phone-in on Sky News, to air his views about NHS waiting lists. He said it was “ridiculous” that people were having to wait so long for treatment, and that he’d pay for some scans to help. Visiting the hospital last week, he said he was there to “prove I’m not all mouth and trousers”, and added that he’d like to fund more units across the country.

Welsh island becomes a dark sky sanctuary

An island off the coast of north Wales has become the first place in Europe to be designated an International Dark Sky Sanctuary. The status, one up from a Dark Sky Reserve, means that it is remote enough to have almost no light pollution, making its skies perfect for stargazing. Lying almost two miles off the Llŷn Peninsula, Bardsey Island (aka Ynys Enlli) has only a handful of permanent residents, and a mountain that shields it from light on the mainland, making its closest source of pollution Dublin, over 70 miles away.