Most scholarship applications ask for a CV, and many applicants send the same one they use for job hunting. That is a missed opportunity. A selection committee reads your CV to answer a few quick questions: What have you studied, how well did you do, what have you done beyond the classroom, and does this person look ready for the programme? An academic CV is built to answer those questions in under two minutes of reading.
This guide shows you what an academic CV is, which sections to include and in what order, how to describe your experience so it reads as evidence rather than a list, and the mistakes that make a reviewer stop reading.
Academic CV vs job CV: what changes
A job CV is designed to show an employer you can do a specific role. It usually leads with work experience and keeps education short. An academic CV flips that order. Education comes first, followed by research, academic achievements, publications or presentations, and then relevant work or volunteer experience.
Three practical differences matter most:
- Length: A student applying for a Master’s degree usually needs one to two pages. A PhD applicant with research experience may need two or three. Only go longer if you have real content to fill it.
- Detail on studies: Your thesis title, your supervisor, key courses and your grade or class of degree all belong on an academic CV. On a job CV they are often left out.
- Tone: Plain and factual. No “dynamic, results-driven professional” summaries. Let your record speak.
Step-by-step: building your academic CV
Step 1: Read the call before you write anything
Open the scholarship page and note exactly what it says about the CV. Some programmes set a page limit, ask for a specific template, or want the CV in English only. Some ask you to list references on the CV and others ask for them separately. Follow these instructions exactly. A committee will notice if you ignore them, and some online portals reject files over a set size or page count.
Step 2: Set up a clean layout
Use a simple, single-column layout in a standard font such as Arial or Calibri at 10.5 to 12 points. Keep margins at around 2 cm. Use bold section headings and consistent date formats (for example, “Sep 2022 – Jun 2026”). Avoid photos, tables with heavy borders, icons, skill bars and coloured backgrounds. They look busy on screen, can print badly, and some application systems cannot read them. Save the final version as a PDF named clearly, such as Amina_Bello_CV.pdf.
Step 3: Write the sections in this order
- Contact details: Full name as it appears on your passport, email address you check daily, phone number with country code, city and country. Add a LinkedIn or ORCID link only if the profile is complete and up to date. Date of birth, marital status and religion are not needed unless the programme asks for them.
- Education: Most recent first. For each degree give the institution, city and country, degree name, dates, and your grade (GPA with scale, class of degree, or percentage). Add your thesis or final project title and supervisor if you had one. List three to five relevant courses only if they connect to what you want to study next.
- Research experience: Thesis work, research assistant roles, lab projects or field surveys. Say what question you worked on, what methods you used and what came out of it.
- Publications and presentations: Include journal articles, conference papers, posters and talks, in a consistent citation style. If you have none yet, leave this section out rather than padding it.
- Honours and awards: Scholarships, prizes, dean’s list, competition results. Add a few words of context if the award is not well known, such as “awarded to the top student in the department”.
- Work and volunteer experience: Teaching, internships, NGO work, community projects. Focus on what relates to your field or shows leadership and responsibility.
- Skills: Languages with honest levels, software and research tools you can actually use (for example SPSS, R, Python, QGIS, Stata), and lab techniques if relevant.
- References: Two or three names with title, institution and email, or the line “Available on request” if the programme collects them separately.
Step 4: Turn duties into evidence
The biggest difference between a weak and a strong CV is how experience is described. Weak entries list duties. Strong entries show what you did and what changed because of it. Start each bullet with an action verb and include a concrete detail wherever you honestly can.
Weak: “Responsible for data collection in a research project.”
Stronger: “Designed and ran household surveys in three villages for a study on solar lamp use; cleaned and coded the data in Stata for the final report.”
Notice that the stronger version names the method, the setting and the output. It does not invent numbers or impact. If you do not know a figure, describe the task precisely instead.
Step 5: Tailor it for each scholarship
Keep one master CV with everything you have done. For each application, copy it and trim. A research-focused PhD scholarship needs your research section near the top and in detail. A leadership-focused programme may need your community and volunteer work to be more visible. Make sure the CV matches what you say in your motivation letter, because reviewers often read them side by side.
A short example entry
Here is how one education entry and one research entry might look:
BSc in Environmental Science, Example University, Kenya | Sep 2021 – Jul 2025
Second Class Honours (Upper Division)
Final project: “Changes in groundwater quality near small-scale gold mines in Migori County” (Supervisor: Dr. A. N. Other)
Research Assistant, Department of Geography | Jan 2024 – Jun 2025
- Collected and labelled water samples from 20 boreholes using a standard field protocol
- Mapped sampling sites in QGIS and prepared maps for a departmental seminar
- Drafted the methods section of an internal project report
The names in this example are placeholders. Replace them with your own details.
Common mistakes
- Sending a generic job CV: It buries your education and research under unrelated work history.
- Exaggerating: Listing “fluent” in a language you cannot use in a seminar, or calling a class assignment a “publication”. Interviews and reference checks expose this quickly.
- Unexplained gaps: If you took a year out for work, family or health, a single line explaining it is better than a silent gap.
- Inconsistent formatting: Mixed date styles, different fonts and uneven spacing suggest carelessness.
- Spelling errors and old contact details: Ask a friend to proofread, and send a test email to the address on your CV.
- Too much personal information: Photos, ID numbers and family details are rarely needed and take up space.
- A CV that contradicts your other documents: Dates and grades must match your transcripts and application form exactly.
Final checklist before you upload
- Follows every instruction in the scholarship call (length, format, language)
- Education first, most recent entries first
- Every bullet starts with an action verb and describes a real task or result
- Dates, grades and names match your transcripts and passport
- Proofread by at least one other person
- Saved as a clearly named PDF
FAQ
Should I include my secondary school results?
For a Master’s or PhD application, usually not. Your university degree is what the committee cares about. Undergraduate scholarship applicants should include them, since that is their most recent education.
What if I have no research experience?
Many Master’s applicants do not. Describe your final-year project, a substantial course assignment, or any data or field work you did in an internship. Leave out sections you cannot fill honestly rather than inventing content.
Can I use a CV template from the internet?
Yes, as long as it is simple, single-column and easy to read. Avoid templates with sidebars, graphics or rating bars, and always check whether the scholarship requires its own format.
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