Tertiary Education Records Management Policies and Document Environments

Abstract

Research problem: The Public Records Act (2005) is designed to ensure open access to and the preservation of information and records, while Archives New Zealand’s Information and records management standard (2016) stipulates that public sector organisations including tertiary education institutions must conduct the management of their information and records by means of strategy and policy. As some publicly funded New Zealand tertiary education institutions (TEIs) have chosen to utilise their official websites to communicate these organisational policies with stakeholders and the general public an opportunity exists to study aspects of this phenomenon. This research, then, examines the state of document environments found on individual TEI websites and the contents of the records and information management policies themselves with respect to issues of compliance and comprehensiveness.

Methodology: This research was conducted using a content analysis approach. This approach is the research design best suited to analysing primary (textual) documents such as were gathered for the purpose of this study.

Results: Policy hubs were often found wanting in several aspects, especially when viewed in relation to the level of detail present in and degree of compliance exhibited by many of the records and management policies themselves. Furthermore, in terms of the TEI sector as a whole, while the universities outperformed other TEIs in some areas, there were occasions equally when the reverse held true especially with respect to the content and form of the policies.

Implications: The mandatory and increasingly intricate nature of the relationship between Archives New Zealand and the TEI records management sector is reflected, in part, by the contents of organisational records and information management policies. An outline of the state of open access TEI records management policies provides the basis for a better understanding of the success (or otherwise) of this relationship and generates a crucial means of context for future research and developments.