A programme CV is not a job CV. What selection panels look for, what to cut, and how to fill a page when you are early in your work.
Short answer: two pages maximum, led by what you have done rather than what you have attended. Put projects and results above education. Quantify outcomes. Cut every school prize and every "interests" line. If your page looks thin, the fix is a paragraph describing one project properly, not a longer list of memberships.
A job CV argues you can do a defined role. A programme CV argues you will contribute something to a room and take something back. The panel is building a cohort, not filling a vacancy.
That changes the emphasis. Range, initiative and follow-through matter more than a linear career.
Volunteer, environmental society
tells a panel nothing. Compare:
Ran a waste audit across three schools; found two thirds of landfill waste was compostable; proposal adopted by the district council in 2025.
Same activity. One of them is evidence.
Almost everyone feels this early on. The answer is depth, not volume: take the single most substantial thing you have done and give it three lines describing what you actually did and what changed. One real project beats eight society memberships.
Coursework counts if it involved genuine work — fieldwork, a lab project, a dissertation with primary research.
Two pages at most, and one is fine if you are early on. Panels read hundreds; length is not read as substance.
Not unless the programme explicitly asks. Most international panels prefer anonymous-ish CVs and some remove photos before review.
Lead with projects — university, volunteer, community or personal. What you organised or built matters more than employment history at this stage.
No. Programmes request referees separately through their own form. "References available on request" is a wasted line.
Every event page has its own registration form. Places on each programme are limited.
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