By Muskan Sajid Sayyed, MSc Cyber Security student
When I started Semester 1 of my MSc in Cyber Security at King’s College London, one of the compulsory modules was Security Management.
I’ll be very honest.
The module itself, it just wasn’t my thing.
Policies, frameworks, governance, compliance. All important, yes, but not what excites me when I think about cyber security. If I had looked only at the syllabus, this would not have been a module I was looking forward to.
And yet, somehow, it ended up being one of the most enjoyable parts of my first semester.
What made the difference: The way it was taught
What changed everything was how the module was handled in the large group tutorials.
Almost every topic turned into a group discussion. Sometimes people agreed, sometimes they didn’t, and sometimes the room was completely split. The discussions were never dull. People came in with different opinions, different experiences, and different ways of thinking about security.
Even though the subject matter did not excite me, the conversations did. That made showing up feel worth it.
More importantly, this module helped me make friends I genuinely never expected to make. Not in a forced group project way, but naturally through talking, disagreeing, laughing, and spending time together week after week.
The skit that somehow brought us together
The coursework involved recording a skit explaining:
- Cyber Essentials
- Beyond Cyber Essentials
- The roles of different stakeholders
- The people involved in making security work in real organisations
We had to form a group of six. I chose to work with friends. By the end of the project, we were closer than ever. Not because everything went smoothly, but because it didn’t.
Filming the skit genuinely felt like I had switched degrees and was studying mass media instead. There were arguments over ideas, disagreements over execution, and moments where we were all visibly irritated with each other.
At one point, we honestly felt like fighting each other.
Shortly after, we would be sitting in Burger King sharing fries and laughing about it.
Why this module still matters to me?
Although Security Management was not my primary academic interest, it ended up meaning a lot to me. It reminded me that not every valuable part of a postgraduate degree comes from content you love. Sometimes it comes from the people you meet, the interactions you are pushed into, and the experiences that happen around the coursework rather than inside it.
I really appreciate that King’s encourages this kind of student interaction. Even in a module I personally found less interesting, there was room for collaboration, creativity, and genuine connection which I feel like is reflected on every modules that I am taking.
That is something I will remember long after the frameworks fade from memory.
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