Combining all answers above, you can write reusable code with BaseEntity:

@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@MappedSuperclass
public abstract class BaseEntity {

  @Transient
  public static final Sort SORT_BY_CREATED_AT_DESC = 
                        Sort.by(Sort.Direction.DESC, "createdAt");

  @Id
  private Long id;
  private LocalDateTime createdAt;
  private LocalDateTime updatedAt;

  @PrePersist
  void prePersist() {
    this.createdAt = LocalDateTime.now();
  }

  @PreUpdate
  void preUpdate() {
    this.updatedAt = LocalDateTime.now();
  }
}

DAO object overloads findAll method – basically, still uses findAll()

public interface StudentDAO extends CrudRepository<StudentEntity, Long> {

  Iterable<StudentEntity> findAll(Sort sort);

}

StudentEntity extends BaseEntity which contains repeatable fields (maybe you want to sort by ID, as well)

@Getter
@Setter
@FieldDefaults(level = AccessLevel.PRIVATE)
@Entity
class StudentEntity extends BaseEntity {

  String firstName;
  String surname;

}

Finally, the service and usage of SORT_BY_CREATED_AT_DESC which probably will be used not only in the StudentService.

@Service
class StudentService {

  @Autowired
  StudentDAO studentDao;

  Iterable<StudentEntity> findStudents() {
    return this.studentDao.findAll(SORT_BY_CREATED_AT_DESC);
  }
}