Retention

Retention pertains to the length of time a record is kept in your office (or storage) before it is destroyed or sent to the Archives.

Different records will have different retention lengths, based on the record’s legal and regulatory requirements and your office’s needs. For information on the retention of specific university records, consult the Victoria University Records Schedule.

Most records will pass through several phases:

Active records are used/consulted regularly in your office. These records should be kept close at hand.

Semi-active records are used/consulted only once in a while and may be kept in a storage room or more distant filing cabinet.

Inactive records are no longer consulted in your office, but still may have long-term accountability or historical value. A record becomes inactive once its retention period has expired, at which point you should consider its disposition.