Retention schedules within the University of Toronto’s Records Retention and Disposition Directory incorporate applicable legal and operational requirements for keeping, destroying and archiving university records and information with transparency, accountability, and efficiency.
These schedules within the directory are developed and maintained by UTARMS and made available to all University of Toronto staff, faculty and librarians to support proper maintenance and disposition of University Records across U of T.
The contents of the Directory are currently being revised.
Please see temporary instructions below.
Temporary Instructions
Determining retention and disposition rules during UTARMS’ directory review
Retention and disposition schedules for all University of Toronto administrative records are developed and maintained by UTARMS. We have temporarily taken down our self-serve retention schedules directory to complete a review and will be re-posting the schedules here for your self-serve use in due course. Though our schedules are not posted here, they are still in force and available for your disposition and file planning work by contacting UTARMS.
If you have records ready for disposition
If you have questions about retention requirements for specific records types that you suspect may be eligible for disposition, we would be happy to review your completed transfer request form and get back to you with the current relevant requirements and next steps to transfer or destroy the records in question.
Building or refreshing your file plan (e.g. SharePoint projects)
If you are building or refreshing a file management system and thinking of integrating retention rules and disposition instructions as part of your project, UTARMS can advise which rules apply to the records types in your plan but only after you have drafted your file plan arrangement and a complete inventory of the records types that will be housed in your plan.
We recommend you design and organize file plans in a manner that prioritizes your unit’s specific security access and procedural workflow requirements, and arrange records types within these priority groupings according to the functions, activities and transactions they serve your unit.
We recommend you develop and document file naming conventions and digital filing guidelines to help maintain all shared records maintenance systems.
Records Management Resources for UofT Staff
Determining if University Records are eligible for Permanent Retention in the Archives
For additional retention and disposition questions, contact UTARMS.
Records not found in the directory
If your office has records that have not been scheduled, please contact UTARMS before transferring or destroying the records so they can be appraised and scheduled based on their legal, fiscal, informational and historical value.
The Records Archivist determines, in consultation with the University Archivist and the office inquiring about the transfer, how long records must be kept. The Records Archivist will prepare a Statement of Appraisal specifying which records can be destroyed, which need to be retained for a longer period of time by the office and which can be transferred to the University Archives for permanent retention.
The Statement of Appraisal is then sent to the University office for approval by a senior administrator.
For assistance or confirmation locating the relevant rule for your record type, contact UTARMS.