Record Keeping Policy

The safe keeping of student records is a Government requirement of all Higher Education Providers. The Sydney College of Divinity (SCD) takes responsibility for record storage and security through the Office of the Dean, but certain tasks are undertaken, in the first instance, in the teaching bodies.

Teaching Body Tasks

The teaching body has the immediate responsibility for student records related to enrolment and progression, including:

▪ Enrolment / Admission Details and Supporting Evidence– retention of formal requests, approvals and agreements
Retained for 5 years after a student graduates or, for a student who discontinues study, until the maximum period for completion of the award has expired.

▪ Progressive Student Academic Results – entry of up-to-date student data into database
Retained for 5 years after a student graduates or, for a student who discontinues study, until the maximum period for completion of the award has expired.

▪ Overseas Student Records – keeping progressive records of overseas students living and studying in Australia (CRICOS)
Letters of Agreement, Confirmation of Enrolment, attendance records, academic records including at-risk and intervention records, semester review of delivery mode of units to accord with ESOS regulations, the residential address, and financial records including receipts for fees paid, to be retained for at least 2 years after a student completes their study and graduates.

▪ Dispute Documentation and Supporting Evidence – retention of relevant correspondence, meetings, and decisions
Retained for 5 years after the dispute has been resolved.

Office of the Dean Responsibilities

The Office of the Dean has overall responsibility for all student academic records, including:

(i) maintenance of information in the database;
(ii) information forwarded in electronic form to the Office re enrolment, disputes, and overseas (CRICOS) student records, as detailed above;
(iii) Fee-Help applications; and
(iv) academic transcripts:

▪ Admission Approvals
Retained for 5 years after a student graduates or, for a student who discontinues study, until the maximum period for completion of the award has expired.

▪ Credit for Previous Study Approvals
Retained for 5 years after a student graduates or, for a student who discontinues, study, until the maximum period for completion of the award has expired.

▪ Student Results
Retained for 5 years after a student graduates or, for a student who discontinues study, until the maximum period for completion of the award has expired.

▪ Overseas Student Records of Agreements and Receipts
Retained for at least two years after the student graduates.

▪ Dispute Documentation
Retained for 5 years after the dispute has been resolved.

▪ Fee Help Applications
Retained for 7 years after a student graduates or, for a student who discontinues study, until the

maximum period for completion of the award has expired.

▪ Academic Transcripts
Retained for at least 30 years after a student graduates.

Manner of Record-Keeping

All records are to be maintained securely and confidentially to prevent unauthorised or fraudulent access to private or sensitive information, including information where unauthorised access may compromise academic or research integrity.

All records referred to above are to be held in electronic form; written or printed records are to be transposed to electronic form in a timely manner. All electronic records are to be held securely either on the institutional server or in cloud-based systems with enterprise grade security and backed up off-site at least daily. All CRICOS student records held in the teaching body are to be forwarded to the Office of the Dean in electronic form at the end of each semester. Older records held on physical storage devices pending disposal after transfer to the server or cloud-based system will be stored in a secure environment.

For the period of their retention, electronic records will be transferred to formats readable via contemporary technology as necessary.

Current student academic records that are held in the Student Administration database (Paradigm) are considered secure as they are held off-site and there is an effective backup system in place. This provides adequate security for progressive current student academic results.

In the case of an MI withdrawing from the SCD, the MI must have all SCD student records in the student database (Paradigm) up-to-date, including all results, and provide to the SCD a copy of all their SCD student records that are within the mandated storage framework of the SCD Record- Keeping Policy.