To write an academic CV for a scholarship application, start with the programme’s format and page limit. List your education, then give the most relevant evidence of what you’ve done, such as a thesis, course project, research placement or leadership role. Under each experience, show your part in the work and what you produced. Add awards, publications or presentations when they help answer the call.
If your strongest work happened in class or as a volunteer, you can build a CV around it. The example below shows how an early-career applicant might describe a project and a community role in a few lines.
Choose the CV format the scholarship asks for
Scholarship portals may use “CV” and “résumé” differently. A short CV gives a selective overview, while a research-focused academic CV can give more space to methods, publications and presentations. For more on these formats and how to present academic work, see the University of Oxford Careers Service and Harvard’s graduate CV guide.
| Format | When to use it | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Short scholarship CV | The call asks for a brief document or gives a tight page limit. | Which experiences address the selection criteria? |
| Research-focused academic CV | The call asks for a fuller record of your research and academic experience. | Which methods, outputs or publications are relevant, and how should you list them? |
| Europass CV | The programme requires or recommends the Europass layout. | Does it specify an official template, sections or export format? |
| Online application profile | The portal collects your background in separate fields. | Does the portal also ask for a CV attachment? |
DAAD’s Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience (PRIME) asks for an EU-style tabular CV and recommends the Europass template. It asks applicants to account for gaps in their chronology and treats a photograph as optional. See the DAAD PRIME FAQ.
Write your scholarship CV in seven steps
1. Copy the instructions before opening a template
Make a note of the page limit, language, file type and required sections. If the call asks for grades or referees, check which fields it expects and where they go. Compare the CV instructions with the rest of your application materials using the Erasmus Mundus document checklist.
2. Keep a private record of your experience
List your degrees, projects, roles and awards in one place. For each entry, record the dates, your contribution and where you can check the details. A course report, meeting note or supervisor’s confirmation can help you recover the specifics months later. Draw on that record each time you tailor the submitted CV.
3. Put the most relevant sections near the top
For a first postgraduate scholarship, education is often a sensible opening section. List the degree, institution and completion date or expected date. Add a relevant thesis, course or result if it helps explain your preparation. For a research award, consider putting selected research projects immediately after education. Within sections, a useful default is to start with the most recent entry.
4. Write bullets that show what you did
Start with a verb. Give the reader enough context to see your role, the method you used and the result or deliverable. If four people worked on a project, name the part you handled. Use figures you can explain, such as the number of records you cleaned or workshops you coordinated.
Hypothetical wording examples. The work and figures below are fictional.
| Vague wording | Evidence the reader can assess |
|---|---|
| Helped with a lab project | Logged 18 water samples and checked duplicate readings for a three-person lab assignment. |
| Organised student activities | Scheduled six volunteer shifts and shared the weekly rota with the project coordinator. |
| Good spreadsheet skills | Used pivot tables to summarise survey responses by campus and checked the totals against the source file. |
5. Choose headings you can fill
Use headings such as Education, Selected Projects, Research Experience, Leadership or Awards where you have relevant material. If your work is a course presentation, name the course and describe the presentation. If a paper is under review, label its status accurately. For a service award, use your leadership portfolio to identify a decision or result you can support.
6. Format for someone who is scanning
Use clear headings, consistent dates and readable type. Keep essential information in text and check that the exported file opens properly. If the programme requests Europass, start with the official Europass CV builder.
7. Check the CV against the rest of the application
Make sure names, dates and job titles agree across your documents. Give your referee details of work they saw and use your motivation letter to explain why the programme fits your plans. See our scholarship motivation letter guide and recommendation letter request guide.
Academic CV outline and worked example
Start with this outline and keep the sections that fit the award. Follow the programme’s preferred order if it supplies one.
- Contact. Name, professional email and a relevant work or research link if useful.
- Education. Degree, institution, completion date and relevant thesis or coursework.
- Selected projects or research. Role, dates, methods, contribution and output.
- Experience or leadership. Organisation, dates, responsibilities and evidence of your work.
- Awards, presentations or publications. Exact title, awarding body or venue, date and status.
- Skills. Relevant tools, research methods or languages with an accurate proficiency level.
Worked example for an early-career applicant
Hypothetical CV excerpt. The person, institution and experience are fictional. The applicant is applying for a taught environmental science master’s scholarship.
Mina Rahman
mina.rahman@example.com
Education
BSc Environmental Science, Example University, expected June 2027
Relevant coursework in water quality and introductory statistics.
Selected project
Campus water sampling, February to April 2026
Logged 18 samples and checked duplicate readings for a three-person lab assignment. Prepared the results table for the team report.
Community involvement
Volunteer, campus refill-station project, September to October 2026
Scheduled six volunteer shifts and summarised recurring maintenance requests for the project coordinator.
For a scholarship that asks about community service, Mina could give the volunteer project more space and describe how the team assigned follow-up work. For an award that emphasises research preparation, she could expand the sampling entry with the method she used and the part of the analysis she owned.
Common scholarship CV mistakes
- Using the same opening for every call. Check the first few entries against the target award’s criteria and move relevant work up.
- Copying details from an example. Search your draft for sample names, dates, places and contact information before exporting.
- Leaving your role unclear. Name the part you handled and credit shared work where appropriate.
- Including sensitive information by default. Keep identity documents, birth dates and similar information for the official fields that request them.
- Submitting the editable draft by accident. Follow the requested file format. If PDF is accepted, open the final export to check page breaks, text and links.
Final CV checklist
- Check the required template, language, file type and page limit.
- Confirm the institution names, dates, award titles and publication status.
- Read the first section as a reviewer and check whether your preparation is easy to find.
- Check that each figure has a source and each project shows your contribution.
- Name the file clearly, open it once more and check the portal preview after upload.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an academic CV for a scholarship be?
Use the programme’s page limit. If it gives none, one or two pages is a useful starting point for a short early-career CV. A research-focused CV can run longer when the application calls for a fuller record and the extra entries are relevant.
Do I need publications or paid work experience?
Check the eligibility criteria. If the scholarship accepts applicants at your stage, a thesis, supervised assignment, lab project or volunteer role can show preparation. Give the experience its actual name and say what you delivered.
Should I include a photo, grades or referees?
Check each item against the programme instructions. If the provider requests a GPA, use the recorded value and scale or its specified conversion method. If referees go in a separate portal field, enter them there and confirm their details with them.
Can I use AI tools to edit my scholarship CV?
Read the award’s rules before using a writing tool and check each detail against your records. Some rules apply to specific application components. Chevening, for example, prohibits using AI to generate essay answers. See the Chevening guidance on AI use.
Official sources and review date
Before submitting, reopen the official call alongside your CV and match the requested fields, file type and length. Official guidance linked in this article was checked on 8 November 2026.
