Normal Administrative Practice

What is Normal Administrative Practice?

Normal administrative practice (NAP) is a process that allows the University to destroy certain types of low-value and short-term information in the normal course of business. It is an important tool to minimise costs of maintaining and managing records.

What can be destroyed under NAP?

Records of ephemeral value (i.e., records with little or no ongoing administrative, fiscal, legal, evidential or historical value) can be destroyed without authorisation as part of NAP when they are no longer needed for administrative, legal or other operational purposes.

Important: University records may only be considered for destruction under NAP when they are not covered – and don't need to be covered – by the University Records Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA).

Examples of records that may be destroyed under NAP:

NAP typeExamplesExclusions
Reference or duplicate copies
  • Copies of records which are originated and held within a University endorsed system, such as: StudentOne, ServiceNow, Content Manager.
  • Non-master copies of policies, procedures, reports, meeting material and communications.
  • Carbon copies (cc) or blind carbon copies (bcc) kept for convenience.
  • Copies of data used for reference or testing.
  • Decommissioned websites that have been captured by the University's Web Archiving Program.
  • Records where master copies no longer exist.
  • Digitised source records.
  • Backup copies of records and information used for the purpose of system recovery.
Rough working papers and calculations
  • Routine or rough calculations working papers or background notes used to develop drafts.
  • Spreadsheets or documents that have been incorporated into correspondence or a separate final document.
  • System printouts or versions used to verify data or answer queries that are not part of regular reporting procedures and are not required for ongoing use.

Rough working papers and calculations containing significant decisions and/or other significant information that is not contained in the final form of document.

Drafts not intended for further use

Draft documents which:

  • do not contain significant or substantial changes or annotations
  • are not required to document business activities.

Drafts formally circulated internally or released externally for review, comment and consultation and/or which incorporate substantial input that provides insight into the evolution of the final version, such as:

  • Draft policies, guides, industry rules etc. released for consultation.
  • Draft of high-level plans, strategies or reports released for consultation.
  • Draft agreements incorporating legal advice, which form part of contractual negotiations.
  • Drafts related to legislation formulation, legislative proposals or amendments, or cabinet submissions.
Transitory or short-term items
  • Informal communications that do not support or contribute to administrative or operational functions.
  • Emails relating to system alerts, bounce backs, reminders.
  • Invitations, calendars and appointment diaries used for routine day-to-day operations and activities.
  • Zero byte files and empty folders.

Diaries used to record important matters or belonging to senior executives.

Publications produced by an external party and unofficial information
  • Promotional or advertising material.
  • External publications and catalogues.
  • Unsolicited emails or letters offering goods or services.
  • Unofficial personal email unrelated to work activities.

External promotional material that support and validate purchase decisions.

Further information

If you require further information or advice about applying NAP, please contact us: records-info@unimelb.edu.au.

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