Mihai has won the “Best graduating stage 3 Cyber Security Student” for the academic year 2025-26 from the School of Computing, University of Kent. We want to congratulate Mihai for his remarkable achievement! Part of his successful performance was due to his final year project “Shadow Arsenal: Investigating Cyber Warfare, Sanctions, and Policy in the Russo Ukrainian War” under the supervision of Dr Budi Arief.
This is what Mihai had to say:
Could you tell us about your experiences studying at Kent?
If I could go back in time 3 years to when I was first researching, touring and visiting universities, ultimately picking the University of Kent – I would change absolutely nothing, now knowing how it all turned out. I am more than happy with my decision and to any prospective or incoming students currently on the fence or unsure how to feel – I can safely say that you won’t regret choosing Kent. From the green campus and educational environment to the academic institutions themselves and everything in-between, spending time here will profoundly transform you as both a person and a professional.
What are your tips for current and future students based on your outstanding performance?
Try to, at the very least, do the bare minimum by turning up to every single lecture, seminar and workshop. If you engage with all of the class materials and do all of your assessments, assignments and coursework as early as possible, even as soon as you get them, that should leave you with plenty of stress-free, free time to get actively involved in as many of the extra-curricular activities on offer as possible.
Kent definitely deserves its government-accredited awards as an Academic Centre of Excellence in both education and research. Join the cyber security student society, KMCS3, seek out the iCSS, go to BSides Kent! Simply reach out to the academic community and from there the opportunities will present themselves to you thick and fast, you just need to choose what you want and what most interests you on your own path.
What are your plans for the future?
I am about to start a MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, where I plan to pursue research into digital governance in transitional democracies and emerging economies as well as hybrid warfare, political interference, election meddling, and disinformation campaigns across Central and Eastern Europe. While there, I also want to immerse myself in the Oxford Programme for Cyber and Technology Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government as per my interdisciplinary interests in geopolitics and policy. Afterwards I hope to find an entry-level role in security, intelligence or GRC in London or Europe.