A team of University College Birmingham undergraduates cracked a complex mock cyber incident in the nail-biting regional finals of a national student challenge.

Role-playing as cyber security advisors for a real Scottish partnership responsible for infrastructure, public safety and regional resilience, Arnam, Babatunde Sunday Adeyemi Adelowotan, Abrarkhan Pathan and Hassan Jahangir had to produce and present detailed reports to a panel of industry experts in the Cyber Leaders Challenge 2026 competition for UK universities.

Throughout January and February, the team, all Cyber Security BSc (Hons) students, analysed no fewer than 15 detailed scenario reports, including government advisories, security research insights, media coverage and preliminary incident analyses in preparation for presenting their strategic recommendations to the judging panel.

Lecturer Dr Raja Muhammad Ubaid Ullah, who coached, guided and mentored the ‘UCB CLC’ team throughout the briefing stages of the challenge, said the students had been fantastic.

“It is the first time the University has entered a competition like this before, with 450 students across the UK taking part,” he said.

“Our four students were just brilliant and worked really hard, even sacrificing their break after their mock exams and weekends to work on the challenge.   

“It was an excellent opportunity for them to engage in a high-level cyber crisis simulation focused on strategic decision-making and multi-agency coordination, and it will be great for their future careers and portfolios.”

Team leader Arnam said: “It was a great experience, especially as it was about more than just the tech. We learned to look at problems strategically and work on them as a team. It will really help us when we are in the industry.”

Babatunde added: “We got insight into the real-life world of cyber, which was amazing.”

Abrarkhan, who has just secured a one-year paid work placement as a test analyst with retailer NEXT’s headquarters, said: “It was an exciting opportunity to see what it’s like in the industry.”