Resume template · Updated October 2026
Higher education resume template
Short answer
Henrietta fits higher education staff roles: a conventional business page that prints education straight after experience, where a search committee checks your degree against the posting. The fictional sample is a senior academic advisor at a public university with a first-generation caseload, an early alert process, degree audit and advising software, and new-advisor training. Faculty posts usually ask for an academic CV instead.
Download the higher education sample
Lauren is a fictional senior academic advisor. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Henrietta suits a higher education resume
Henrietta prints education immediately after work experience instead of at the bottom, and higher education postings usually state a required degree, so a committee scoring applications finds yours quickly. The left-aligned name and black and grey styling give the conventional look campuses expect from staff and administrative applicants.
Second choice: Leslie. Leslie keeps experience first under a blue header and moves education below skills, useful when your degree is not your main qualification.
What goes in each section, in Henrietta's order
Henrietta prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Name your area (advising, admissions, financial aid, registrar, student affairs, research administration), the type of institution and the students you serve. Then one outcome you influenced, such as persistence, yield or time to degree.
- Work Experience. Give the volume: students advised, applications read, aid files processed, events run. Name the systems and one initiative with a measured result. Search committees often score against the posting's listed duties, so describe your matching work in your own words.
- Education. Henrietta prints this right after experience. Highest degree first, with field and institution; a master's in higher education, student affairs or counselling is common for advising and student affairs posts. Add an assistantship in one line if it relates to the role.
- Skills. The grid prints without group labels, so put student-facing practice first (appreciative advising, degree planning, early alert outreach), systems second (Degree Works, EAB Navigate, Banner, Slate) and languages third.
- Campus service and presentations. Campus service and professional activity count: committees, conference presentations, trainings you lead for colleagues. Keep each to a line with the year.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Lauren Mitchell
Senior Academic Advisor, First-Year and First-Generation Students
Tucson, AZ | lauren.mitchell@example.com | (520) 555-0118 | linkedin.com/in/sample-lauren-mitchell
Senior academic advisor with seven years at community college and public university level, now advising a caseload of about 350 first-year and first-generation students. Runs the college's early alert outreach and trains new advisors on degree planning and FERPA.
Experience
Senior Academic Advisor, Sonoran State University, College of Liberal Arts, Tucson, AZ (07/2021 to Present)
- Advise about 350 first-year and first-generation students a year on course planning, major exploration and academic standing.
- Run the college's early alert outreach: a faculty flag in week four leads to a call or meeting within five business days.
- Co-led a redesign of summer bridge advising; first-to-second-year persistence for participants rose about four points over two cohorts.
- Train each new advisor on Degree Works audits, EAB Navigate notes and FERPA basics.
Academic Advisor, Desert Willow Community College, Phoenix, AZ (08/2018 to 06/2021)
- Advised about 400 transfer-track students and built term-by-term transfer maps for the five most common bachelor's programs.
- Offered evening and online appointments for working students, roughly a third of the caseload.
- Presented degree planning workshops at new student orientation each term.
Campus service and presentations
- Presenter, regional academic advising conference, 2024: early alert outreach for first-year students
- Member, college retention committee, 2022 to present
- FERPA training facilitator for new advisors, 2023 to present
Education
MEd, Higher Education Administration, Mesa Verde University (05/2018)
BA, Psychology, Sonoran State University (05/2016)
Skills
Developmental and appreciative advising, Degree planning, Early alert outreach, Transfer credit evaluation, Degree Works, EAB Navigate, Banner Student, Microsoft Teams, Spanish (professional working)
How to make the sample yours
Use the posting's student-success terms
Retention, persistence, DFW rates, yield and time to degree are the measures campuses report. Use the ones that match your work, with the change you saw, and say whether it came from a pilot or a full cohort.
Handle FERPA in one line
FERPA gives students rights over their education records once they enrol at a postsecondary institution, at any age. If you handle records, a line on FERPA training, or on training others, is enough; never include anything taken from a student record.
Describe your advising approach concretely
NACADA's core competencies model groups advising knowledge into conceptual, informational and relational areas. You do not need the labels, but a bullet on the theory you apply, one on the rules you know and one on how you work with students covers all three.
Moving in from K-12 or industry
Teachers bring advising, data use and family communication; corporate recruiters and sales staff bring the funnel skills admissions offices run on. Translate the vocabulary (caseload, yield, outreach) and keep any work with young adults.
Faculty applicants need a CV
Teaching and research appointments expect an academic CV with publications, grants and courses taught. This layout is for staff and administrative posts, including faculty moving into administration.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- student success
- academic advising
- retention
- persistence
- first-generation students
- degree audit
- early alert
- FERPA
- enrollment management
- Banner
- Slate
- student affairs
- assessment
- cross-campus collaboration
Mistakes to avoid
- Ignoring the posting's listed qualifications; committees often screen against them line by line.
- Student names or case details in bullets, even anonymised stories.
- A faculty CV listing every conference attended, sent for a staff role.
- Leaving out the systems; campus offices run on student information, CRM and degree audit tools.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a CV or a resume for a university job?
A resume for staff and administrative jobs, a CV for faculty and research posts. If a staff posting asks for a CV, a fuller resume with presentations and service usually satisfies it.
How do I move from K-12 teaching into higher education?
Advising, admissions and student success roles value teaching experience. Lead with work with older students, data you used to support them and any advising, counselling or college-readiness duties.
Should I include my graduate assistantship?
Yes, early in your career, as a job with dates and bullets: assistantships in residence life, advising or orientation are relevant experience. Drop it once you have several years of full-time work.
How long can a higher education resume be?
Two pages is common for staff with several years of experience, presentations and committee work. Keep the first page focused on the role you are applying for.
How do I show work with first-generation or transfer students?
Name the population, your caseload and the program you ran or improved, with a result. A bridge program, a transfer map or an outreach process is more convincing than a general statement of commitment.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Henrietta PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 5 section headings and all 7 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.
Guides and templates for this resume
Sources, checked 29 October 2026
We opened every page below on that date. Pay, rules and requirements change, so check the source before you rely on a detail.
- U.S. Department of Education, Student Privacy Policy Office: What is FERPA? (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act; rights over education records pass to the student at 18 or on enrolling in a postsecondary institution at any age)
- NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising: NACADA Academic Advising Core Competencies Model (three content components: conceptual, informational and relational)
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