Records Destruction Guidelines

Disposal of records involves the following steps:

1. Access the following tools required to conduct records disposal:
   • Queensland State Archives General Retention and Disposal Schedule for Queensland Universities
   • Queensland State Archives General Retention and Disposal Schedule for Administrative Records
   • QUT General Records Disposal Form
     
     
2. Read through each file and determine what types of records it contains.
3. Using the disposal schedules find the appropriate retention period.

The QSA Administrative Disposal Schedule is for general administrative records that are common across all government agencies (for example, staff and financial records).  The Queensland Universities’ Schedule includes retention periods for records that are specific to a University environment (for example, student and research records).  Both schedules are exclusive of each other, so records should appear in either one schedule or the other.  As a general rule, start with the Queensland Universities’ schedule and if your record can not be located there, consult the QSA Administrative Records schedule.

Sometimes there will be more than one type of document on a file, therefore more than one retention period may be relevant.  In these cases you will need to keep the file according to the longest applicable retention period.

Please Note:  Some records, such as duplicates and drafts are classed as ephemeral records.  Ephemeral records are defined as items of short term, informational value and do not need to be incorporated into a recordkeeping system.  These documents can be destroyed without completing a QUT General Records Disposal Form.  For a full list of ephemeral documents please see page 81 of the Queensland State Archives General Retention & Disposal Schedule for Administrative Records.

4. Fill in the QUT General Records Disposal Form.
5. Physically destroy the records once approval is obtained from the Head of Section and Director, Governance Services.
6. Update the Disposal Form with the details of destruction and the date destroyed.
7. If the files are managed in a database, such as TRIM, they will need to be updated as ‘destroyed’ in the database.
8. Send the completed QUT General Records Disposal Form to Records Management Services (U Block, Room 303, Gardens Point Campus).