Records Management: Retention Schedules
An essential part of good records management is ensuring that records are retained for as long as they have value, and no longer. How long records should be kept is determined by a number of factors, including business needs, legal requirements, risk management, and historical or cultural value.
A retention schedule has been developed for SOAS which focuses on the major series of the School's records: those which SOAS generates in large quantities, particularly in paper format. The schedule will be developed and extended as SOAS's records management programme develops. The schedule is based on existing retention practices, discussions with departments, and the recommendations in the model retention schedule for HE institutions developed by the JISC.
The schedule was approved by Information and Internal Communications Committee in May 2008. Minor revisions will be approved by the Deputy Secretary.
Advice on the retention schedule and records management more generally is available from the Information Compliance Manager (email to dataprotection@soas.ac.uk).
Last updated: August 2008
