Records Management

Student records retention

Retention schedule for student records.

Updates to EUCLID

This page provides general guidance about retention periods for student records. If you have an enquiry about the University's main student record system EUCLID, you should contact Student Systems as they directly manage this system.

Student Systems support and guidance

There are two retention schedules for student records– a pre-EUCLID schedule applicable to older student records for the time period up to 2009/10 and a post-EUCLID retention schedule for current records and older records from 2009/10 onwards.  

Both retention schedules are intended for staff working in areas that hold information about the University's students, particularly freedom of information practitioners responsible for responding to subject access requests in their business areas. 

 

The schedules set out recommendations for the amount of time that the University needs to keep records about its students and have been produced in consultation with relevant departments and the University Archivist. 

These retention schedules can be used in three different ways: 

  • To answer ad hoc queries about what should be done with particular collections of information about students, such as ‘What do I do with student application forms?’ 

  • To develop business area retention schedules and recordkeeping procedures for student records. 

  • To integrate recordkeeping practices into business processes both locally and centrally. For example, if rejected applications are kept until the end of an admissions cycle, they can be destroyed as part of the work for closing down that cycle and preparing for the next. 

The retention schedules are published on the Data Protection website.

Data protection website retention schedules

Core archival student record

The core archival student record will enable the University to answer any enquiry concerning the identity of a student, the topics and subjects studied, the results of all assessments counting towards a qualification, and details of the award achieved. It should also support the production of management information and the conduct of academic research on the University's student population. For records that were created before 2009/10, you will need to consult and adhere to the pre-EUCLID core archival student record, for records created after that time, consult and adhere to the post-EUCLID core archival student record.