The Jason Arday fiasco was tragic and avoidable. The Cambridge professor, often touted as “youngest Black professor,” was exposed for academic fraud and eventually committed suicide, leaving Britain to grapple with what happens when elite universities lower academic standards in pursuit of diversity.
A new study suggests Canadian universities may be harbouring an even bigger diversity-over-merit problem.
Macdonald-Laurier Institute evaluated the prestigious Canada Research Chairs program. They found that equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) hiring policies have come at a measurable cost to academic excellence, with researchers estimating tens of millions of dollars in lost research output each year.
