CV/résumé
Guidance on preparing and submitting a CV/résumé if your course requires one, and how to complete the relevant sections of the application form if your course does not require a separate CV/résumé.
Do I need to upload a CV?
Most courses do not require a CV (résumé) document to be uploaded to your application, so you should only upload one where this is specified in the How to apply section of the relevant course page.
If a CV is uploaded to your application where it is not required, it will be removed from your application, so do not skip these questions expecting the information to be available in your CV instead.
Courses which do not require a CV to be uploaded will capture information about your experience in the following sections within the CV part of the application form:
- Professional qualifications and training courses
- Employment experience
- Research experience
- Publications, pre-prints
- Presentations, posters and performances
- Prizes and awards
- Skills and interests
- Other information
You can add additional lines to these sections where necessary, but should only include material relevant to your application. You do not need complete every CV question category in the application form if you do not have relevant information to add, but please note that you will not be able to insert additional material here after submitting your application.
Where a separate CV is required, it should be one or two pages in length and provide a summary of your recent achievements. It should provide details of your qualifications, any publications and any other experience relevant to your application.
There will be a slot on the ‘Supporting documents’ tab of the application form to upload it and there will be no additional fields to complete in the application form.
topHow to write a CV
Our students, alumni and staff have provided tips and advice on preparing your application for postgraduate study.
Whether you're just thinking about applying, or are already preparing documents to support your application, you'll find guidance below to help.
If your course requires a CV/résumé, DPhil in English Literature alumna Ellen Brewster suggests how to approach writing one for graduate applications.
"You probably won’t see a lot of other academic CVs before you have to write your own when you apply for graduate courses. It can be difficult to decide what’s relevant for this kind of CV and how you want to structure it, especially if you’re used to professional CVs for job applications."
If you’re not sure where to start, Ellen has some ideas on what to think about.
Get focused
"What you should be trying to do is give the people who look at applications an understanding of the work you have done in the past, and how this relates to your application for your chosen course. Your academic CV should support your research proposal, statement or purpose or personal statement. Make sure you tailor it to the course you’re applying to, as far as possible. However, it’s less important than your proposal or statement, so don’t stress too much!
How long does it need to be?
There’s no specific page limit for academic CVs. That said, that shouldn’t be an excuse to put anything and everything on there. A page is often enough, especially at master’s level.
Organising your CV
It’s really up to you how you organise your academic CV, but you might find these section headings useful in thinking beyond your grades and looking at how you can display your work to its best advantage:
Education
Your grades and predicted grades to date.
Funding and awards
Make sure you list any prizes or scholarships you have won (this can include means-tested awards as well), with brief information on what they were for.
Publications
You might not have any publications in academic journals yet — most people don’t when applying for a DPhil/PhD — but make sure you give details if you do. You could also mention newspaper articles, posters or other kinds of published work, either here or under a ‘Public engagement’ heading. It’s fine to leave this section out entirely if you don’t have anything relevant, though.
Academic experience (or Research experience)
Describe research you have done and contributed to, including things like extended essays or dissertations. If you’re applying during your last year of study, remember that you’ve still got a whole year of the course and developing your research skills to go; you can also write about works in progress (say ‘This forthcoming essay will consider…’). Try to focus on the research skills that you’ve used, or will use, in your work: if you’re studying the humanities, for example, will you have to look at manuscripts and/or visit an archive, or have you done this in the past?
Other relevant experience
Think about other things you’ve done which would be relevant to your research or course. What jobs have you had? Have you done any volunteering or internships? Have you done any tutoring or mentoring? What skills did these experiences help you to develop? I worked for a publishing house, for example, which relates to my DPhil research area.
Public engagement
If you write a blog or have a public social media channel with academic content, for example, this would be a great thing to mention quickly.
You may want to change the order or headings depending on the course or university that you’re sending your application to. Best of luck with your application!”
top