Retention and Disposal

Retention and Disposal Authority (Updated December 2025)

The Monash Retention and Disposal Authority has been formulated to help staff manage their records. It is arranged according to the University's business classification scheme and the following conditions apply to the Authority:

Disposal classes apply to records and information in any format (including personal information).
Classes refer to original records created within administrative and academic departments, or by boards and committees. Copies distributed for reference may usually be destroyed when no longer required (see Normal Administrative Practice below).
Minimum retention periods are given - records may be kept longer if still of value to the creating office, and records must be kept longer if:
- it is reasonably likely that they will be needed in a current or future legal proceeding. This includes any civil or criminal proceeding or an inquiry where evidence may be given before a court or person acting judicially such as a Royal Commission or Board of Inquiry (see NOTE below)
- they are required for meeting any Freedom of Information (FOI) applications which are not finalised
- they are required for audits or investigations which are not yet finalised; and/or
- they are subject to disposal freezes applied by government or by the University.
After consultation with the Archivists, all records recommended for permanent retention should be transferred to the University Archives when no longer required for business purposes.

The University Archives repository provides the temperature and humidity controls appropriate for storage of permanent records, together with the intellectual and physical control of stored records which enables information/research requests to be responded to, in most cases, within 24 hours.

The Disposal Authority brings together disposal classes from a number of Public Record Office Victoria Disposal Standards, including:

While the RDA includes disposal classes for research data, more detailed information on management and disposal of such data is available at:
The RDA is the source document for all OHS disposal classes. However, in order to meet a number of internal and external OHS requirements, these sentences have been organised into a singular document here.
Personal information is retained and disposed of in accordance with the University's Retention and Disposal Authority, which is based on the Public Record Office Victoria Disposal Standards relevant to the University (listed above). Temporary records that contain personal information must be destroyed as soon as possible after their stated retention period in the RDA. This ensures that the University meets its obligations under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).
Any records due for destruction according to the Retention and Disposal Authority must be properly documented and their destruction authorised by the relevant area manager.
Authorisation for Destruction of Records should be retained as a permanent record of disposal activities within the University and may be forwarded to the University Archives for permanent retention.
All records managed by the university's records management software - currently Content Manager (TRIM) - will be documented within that system, and their disposal managed by Information and Records Management. Hardcopy records managed in Content Manager, but not physically managed by Information and Records Management, will require authorisation before they may be destroyed.
Normal Administrative Practice (NAP) refers to the principle that certain records do not need to be captured into official recordkeeping systems and may be destroyed without formal authorisation.
NAP applies to all information and data formats and balances efficiency with responsible information management. It complements, but does not replace, the Monash University Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA), by allowing individuals and organisational units to identify and manage their own low risk records. Under NAP, low-value, short term records created, acquired or collected during the course of normal business activities can be deleted without formal authorisation.
NAP is an important tool in the efficient and accountable management of information and should be applied regularly as part of normal working practices. A clear, well supported and widely distributed NAP procedure reduces the risk of inappropriate destruction as well as ensuring non-essential information is not over retained, particularly important when information is highly sensitive and sensitive. A consistently applied NAP also contributes to strong information governance and efficient work practice by prioritising the retention of critical information while disposing of non-essential material.
All staff should be familiar with and understand NAP to ensure that it can be applied correctly in their day-to-day work.
Before implementing NAP, it is crucial that staff understand which records are automatically excluded due to existing legislative and regulatory requirements. These records will be covered under the RDA
- Those which add value to an existing record and/or are needed to clarify, support, or provide context to an existing record
- Draft agreements containing legal advice which form part of contract negotiations
- Information that is needed to show how a decision was made
- Any formal draft of a policy, cabinet submission, agreement or legal document
- Records required to protect rights and entitlements of individuals, groups, or the Government
- Records and information that may be of cultural or historical value to the University and/or the wider community
Additionally, the following records MUST NOT be destroyed:
- They may be needed in a current or future legal proceeding. This includes any civil or criminal proceeding or inquiry where evidence may be given before a court or person acting judicially such as a Royal Commission or Board of Inquiry
- They are required for meeting any Freedom of Information (FOI) applications which are not finalised
- They are required for an audit or investigation which is not yet finalised; and/or
- They are subject to a disposal freeze applied by the government or the organisation.
Facilitative records described below are pre-authorised for destruction by the Public Record Office of Victoria PROV (PROS 22/04 Disposal Standard) under Normal Administrative Practice (NAP) principles:
- working documents, such as notes or rough calculations used to assist in the preparation of other records (e.g. reports and statistical tabulations)
- working papers or background notes used to develop drafts
- spreadsheets or word processing documents that have been incorporated into correspondence or a separate final document
- minor drafts and transitory documents, where the content is reproduced elsewhere and the information will not be needed to show how the work has progressed or actions approved
- draft and transitory documents that do not contain significant or substantial changes or annotations
- draft and transitory documents that are not required to document business activities.
- minor updates of content, such as those in databases, which will not be needed to show actions, decisions or approvals
- communications for the purpose of making minor arrangements
- duplicate copies of information that already exists in a University enterprise system eg: information download from, or uploaded to, Callista or Sap
- Emails, which may be located in either a personal mailbox or a University role account, that have been saved to and/or processed in a University enterprise system.
- duplicates of publications and promotional material
- periodic backups of records, information, data, software and settings for recovery in case of technical failure and/or catastrophe and are duplicate copies of official business records/data that is held elsewhere on a managed system.
The following questions will assist staff in identifying when NAP can be applied.
1. Does the record provide evidence of a business decision?
2. Does it show how a transaction occurred?
3. Does it show how a decision was made?
4. Does it relate to an assessment or investigation?
5. Is the record required to support legal proceedings?
6. Does the record demonstrate when or where an event happened?
7. Does it indicate who was involved or what advice was provided?
8. Is the record a formal draft of a submission, agreement or legal document?
If you answer YES to any of these, the records do not fall under NAP and must not be destroyed
Normal Administrative Practice process
The following diagram outlines the process for Normal Administrative Practice.
Records destruction methods must ensure that records are completely eliminated so that they cannot be reconstructed, or their content extracted or read.  Destruction may be carried out after records due for destruction have been documented and approved (see above - Authorisation of records destruction).
Physical records
Once approved, confidential destruction of hardcopy records, and of microfilm, x-ray, video or audio tapes, can be arranged through Buildings and Property Division.  The records should be shredded, pulped or similar.
Digital records
Once approved, digital records should be 'hard deleted' and not held elsewhere on other servers and storage environments, including back-up, disaster recovery and outsourced storage.
Ewaste containing records, including Monash owned/leased desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, cameras, ICT storage (disks and tape) can be disposed of by contacting eSolutions.  More information is available here: https://www.monash.edu/campus-sustainability/get-involved/waste-recycling/ewaste.
(see PROS 22/04 Disposal Standard for further guidance.)

Records Archives

Records Archives

Retention and Disposal

Normal Administrative Practice process