Academic CV Template, Example & How to Write It

You have passion for your field of study, have completed groundbreaking research, and can even command the attention and respect of those pesky freshers. But without a proper academic CV, you might end up in a McDonald’s, or worse—teaching in a state school. 

Those nightmarish mirages end today. For today, you will build an academic CV worthy of Amartya Sen.

This guide will show you an expert academic CV template for the UK market, academic CV examples to get inspiration for your CV, and plenty of tips on how to write an academic CV that catches attention with the first lines.

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Need a different CV? Check our other CV guides:

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Academic CV Template

So that's how a good CV should look like. Here’s how to make your academic CV equally good: 

1. Show your research interests at the top of your academic CV

Academic CV differs from a commercial CV. The traditional CV profile (or personal statement) that outlines work experience, in academic CVs should outline research interests.

Briefly state the position or programme you’re applying for, explaining your best past research, your current focus, and future research plans. Show them what you can bring to the table, and your general career objectives. Be very matter-of-fact, concise and avoid ambiguous, vague, and unnecessary statements.

Keep this to a 6-8 lines at the very maximum. You can go more in-depth in your cover letter of course, and don’t forget you’re going to be supplying a list of publications anyway. Pique their interest, show your value. Don’t try and give away the whole game here. There's no space.

Academic CV examples — research interests / personal statement 

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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2. Mention education in your academic CV

In reverse-chronological order, list your degrees, titles of your theses and their supervisors, as well as graduation dates. If you have special achievements or key features to describe in your education section, try to limit yourself to 2-3 bullet points for each, and once again—relegate the detail to the cover letter and publications.

List all your degrees and classifications. Some positions call for you to even list your A-Level grades, but for a PhD application, that may be a little too much detail—that you’re taking away from other sections by taking up space. If you’re not sure how far to go back—call them up and ask.

Academic CV examples — education section

3. Add publications to your academic CV

This is what makes you an academic, isn’t it? I would implore you to list this section here. Unless you have a lot of awards and funding to talk about, or you are applying to a teaching position and you have a lot of teaching experience. In that case, prioritise those CV sections under your education.

Regardless of where it is, make sure you provide the full details of your publications—in the same way as if you were citing them, and use a consistent citation style. If you collaborated on a lot of research with others, you may want to underline your name. 

If you have a lot of different types of publications, group them into sections, such as: monographs, journal articles, edited volumes, books, conference papers, government publications, etc.

If something you wrote is not published just yet but is about to be, include it with an expected publication date.

Extra points for checking which citation style the institution prefers, and using that one.

Patents

If you have any patents, it could be wise to group them together under your publications. List the title, patent number, inventors and the date the patent was awarded.

See these academic CV examples:

Academic CV examples — publications and patents

4. List experience on an academic CV

The work experience section on your CV will differ slightly from a commercial one. Use the reverse-chronological format, listing your most recent appointment first. You can try one of the following styles:

Academic CV examples — work experience styles

Either style you choose, it will be easier for the person reading your academic CV if you split it up into these three distinct experience categories:

Research Experience

List any fellowships, postdoctoral appointments, and research assistant jobs. This is also the place to expand on your ‘Research Interests’ section if you feel that’s appropriate and will help advance your application.

Teaching Experience

List any classes, tutorials, seminars, and lecturing you have given. If that’s scarce, include supervising, demonstrations, mentoring, or even non-academic teaching jobs. List the subjects you taught, the level of students, and class sizes.

Admin Experience

List any seminars/conferences/other events you have organised, committees and bodies you sat on, and any other organisational experience. This is what can differ you from a lot of other academic CVs, many of your competitors will not be this multi-dimensional.

5. Add skills to you academic CV—training, research/lab/technical skills

A skills section can help you save space if the same things are cropping up in the descriptions of other sections. Collect key skills for a CV under a single heading of ‘Relevant Skills & Training’. See or try to predict which skills are most desired by your new employer.

List any formal training or certifications you received (with dates), including teacher training, research method training, or certifications you gained privately that make you a more rounded candidate.

Academic CV template — skills section

6. Include memberships in your academic CV

Self-explanatory. List all your academic body and professional memberships, with dates, and roles (if you are performing any roles for them). If you are in a formal role, feel free to drop a few bullet points with some achievements.

Example academic CV — memberships

7. Enrich your academic CV with conferences and presentations

Don’t list everything you’ve ever been to. Focus on those where you organised or chaired sessions. If you produced any documents for those conferences, cite them in the same way you cite your publications.

Academic CV examples — conferences

8. Add references to your academic CV example

Ideally, you would list 2-3 academic referees, if you only have 2, feel free to list 1 non-academic referee. Include their name, position, relation to you (for example, thesis supervisor), address (at their institution), and contact details.

Make sure they are people you have a good relationship with, and ideally, that are somewhat known in your field of study.

Sample academic CV — references

9. Write a captivating academic cover letter 

Check thoroughly what other documents the institution expects to receive from you. We can’t help with specialist essays, but we can help with an academic cover letter will surely be one. Make sure it captures attention right away by following the tips in our ‘How to Start a Cover Letter’ guide.

If the guidelines are unclear as to what to submit, always consult the institution. They’re not going to keep secrets from you. Make sure not only the opening of your cover letter is strong, but also that you know ‘How to End a Cover Letter’ with confidence and a call to action.

10. Other things to keep in mind when writing an academic CV

You will not be trusted to keep your research or teaching organised if you can’t do the same with your application. With this much information, things can slide around and get sloppy. Therefore, follow our CV format guidelines:

• Choose the best CV template that fosters clarity and readability, and make sure it matches your profession. You can pick one of the free CV templates available online.
• Use clear headings for each section to help the reader navigate and find exactly what they need.
• Choose a legible, conservative CV font, and use white space to guide their eyes.
• Unless asked otherwise, save your academic CV as a PDF to protect the formatting.
• Or, use LiveCareer’s CV Builder, and only worry about making the content convincing!

There you go! There’s your ladder all the way to the top of the ivory tower!

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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Does that answer all your questions on how to write an academic CV? Did you find our academic CV examples helpful? If you’ve got any questions, please use the comments section below. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

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Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.