Record Management Policy

Document type: Rule/Policy/Plan/Guidelines/Operating Procedures
Administering entity: Records Manager
Date approved: 14 Apr 09

Latest amendment date: 11 June 09
Approved by: (Academic Board/Principal)
Indicative time for review: Annual
Responsibility for review: Principal

1 Purpose

The purpose of this policy is for the management of all the records of Top Education, to establish principles for the creation, maintenance and disposal of records, for the purposes of administration, security, corporate memory and legal obligations.

2 Scope

This policy refers to all records and employees of Top Education Institute.

3 Definitions

Acknowledgement – this list of definitions was developed with reference to the NSW State Records ‘Glossary of Record Keeping Terms’ (2009), http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/government-recordkeeping-manual/introduction/glossary-of-recordkeeping-terms/glossary-of-recordkeeping-terms#r ;

For the purposes of this document:

Appraisal – The evaluation of business activities to determine which records should be retained and the period of retention, in order to meet legislative requirements, business needs and organisational accountability.

Archive – non-current records, for permanent retention.

Classification Scheme – Grouping records according to their functionality.

Disposal – The range of activities involved in retention, deletion or destruction of records.

Disposal Schedule – List of various records and the period of time the record must be retained. It may also indicate the time at which records should be transferred to secondary storage.

Disposal trigger – The event such as; action completed or superseded, from which the disposal date is calculated.

Destruction - Destroying a record, either the physical destruction or permanent deletion of a record.

Document – Information treated as a unit of information.

Record – Recorded information created or received by Top Education that provides evidence of business activities and affairs, regardless of format.

Record Management System – Information system used to capture and provide access to records.

Retention – the period of time a record should be retained by the institution before final disposal. It may also indicate when records should be transferred to secondary storage or Archived.

Sentence – Identifying and classifying a record according to the Disposal Schedule.

4 Procedures

4.1 Responsibilities

4.1.1 The Principal is responsible for ensuring that all record management legislative requirements are met.

4.1.2 The designated Records Officer is responsible for records management at the operational level, ensuring the implementation of this policy.

4.1.3 Section Managers will be delegated record management responsibility, accountable to the Record Officer.

4.1.4

4.1.5 All staff are responsible for creating appropriate and accurate records of the business activities and affairs of Top Education.

4.2 Training

All staff will receive record management training as part of their orientation.

4.3 Auditing

Regular auditing of record management activities will take place. This is to ensure that records are being created and maintained correctly and an accurate record of the Institutes’ business activities and affairs is being captured in the record management system.

4.4 Creation of Records

4.4.1 Records should be added to the recordkeeping system at the time of creation or receipt of a document.

4.4.2 Wherever possible records should be held in electronic format.

4.4.3 All records should be classified according to the appropriate record keeping naming conventions. The record classification scheme will be used to classify all the Institute records.

4.4.4 If possible all records should be sentenced at the time of creation in accordance with the appropriate disposal schedule.

4.5 Record Maintenance

4.5.1 All records must be stored for their period of retention.

4.5.2 All records must be accessible.

4.5.3 All records (electronic and hard copy) must be maintained in good condition.

4.6 Retention and Disposal of Records

4.6.1 All records should be disposed of according to the appropriate disposal schedule.

4.6.2 All records must to be sentenced according to the appropriate disposal schedule.

4.6.3 The disposal date must set according to the disposal trigger.

4.6.3 No records can be destroyed of without the permission of the Records Manager.

4.6.4 All records that are destroyed must be recorded in a register of “Destroyed Records”.

4.6.5 The destruction process must be secure to ensure confidentiality.

4.7 Archiving Records

4.7.1 Inactive records should be archived with the approval of the Records Officer.

4.7.2 The archive will include records that must be held indefinitely and inactive records during their retention period.

4.8 Record Security

4.8.1 Records must not be altered and all care must be taken not to damage records.

4.8.2 Access to records will be limited by a password hierarchy.

4.8.3 All records will be kept in a secure environment.

4.8.4 Top Education’s Critical Incident Policy is in place to minimise the potential loss of records.

4.9 Detailed procedures for the handling of records may be prepared by each record section

4.9.1 Section procedures must defer to this Record Management Policy.

4.9.2 Section procedures may only be prepared and used with the approval of the Records Officer.

4.9.3 Current Section Procedures:

i) Student Records Management Procedure

ii) Finance Management Procedure

5 Appendix

Disposal Authority Schedule

5 Related documents

i) Accounting and Financial Management Policy

ii) Disposal Authority Policy

iii) Critical Incident Policy

iv) Information Security Policy