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Procedure: Student access to student records

Purpose

To outline the procedure for current and former students to access their student records.

Scope

All current and former students.

Definitions

Documents include but are not limited to paper documents, electronic documents, audio recordings, pictures, plans, photographs and emails. It does not include documents that are publicly available such as reference material that is otherwise available and documents that can be purchased from or available freely from the University.

Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (‘FOI Act’) is Commonwealth legislation that allows the general public to seek access to information held by any Commonwealth agency or authority. The Australian National University is a Commonwealth authority subject to the Act.

FOI Co-ordinator is an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI requests.

Redact means to obscure or remove text that is withheld from release under the provisions of the FOI Act from a copy of document prior to its release.

Procedure

  1. Under the FOI Act current and former students have the right to ask for access to their student records under an administrative access arrangement by lodging a request with the Registrar, Student Administration by email to Registar.Student.Administration@anu.edu.au.
  2. There is no charge for a current or former student requesting access to their student records.
  3. The University processes requests as soon as possible within 30 calendar days after a request is received.
  4. The Registrar, Student Administration provides the FOI Co-ordinator with a copy of the request and contact details of the nominated staff member in Student Administration who is responsible for handling the request.
  5. The FOI Co-ordinator retrieves the student’s student records and examines them to determine if there is any material that would be exempted from release under the FOI Act and identifies any information to be withheld.
  6. The FOI Co-ordinator prepares a covering letter to be signed by the Registrar, Student Administration containing the following information:
  1. documents which are released and any documents where information has been withheld.
  2. exemptions that would apply under the FOI Act to redact information withheld.
  3. a brief explanation of why these exemptions have been applied.
  1. The FOI Co-ordinator forwards a copy of the student records to be released and the covering letter to the Registrar, Student Administration.
  2. The Registrar, Student Administration provides a copy of the student’s records to be released and the signed covering letter to the student.
  3. If requested, the Registrar, Student Administration arranges for the student’s student records to be viewed by the student, ensuring that the student:
    1. provides photographic identification prior to viewing the records;
    2. is supervised at all times;
    3. does not view documents that the FOI Co-ordinator has determined are exempted from release under the FOI Act and information to be withheld;
    4. receives a copy of any document they are entitled to view if they request it; and
    5. is sent a copy of all documents to be released within 5 working days if they request this.

Application under the FOI Act

  1. The student may lodge a request for access to their student records under section 15 of the FOI Act where:
    1. the University fails to notify them of the outcome of their request for access to their student records within 30 days; or
    2. if they are not satisfied with the outcome of the request.
  2. Information about applying under the FOI Act is at Freedom of information requests procedure

Information

 Printable version (PDF)
Title Student access to student records
Document Type Procedure
Document Number ANUP_6030683
Version
Purpose To outline the procedure for current and former students to access their student records.
Audience Students, Staff
Category Administrative
Topic/ SubTopic Information Management - Records & Archives
 
Effective Date 14 Jan 2020
Next Review Date 13 Jan 2025
 
Responsible Officer: University Librarian and Director, Scholarly Information Services
Approved By: University Librarian and Director, Scholarly Information Services
Contact Area Library, Archives and University Records
Authority: Freedom of Information Act 1982
Archives Act 1983
Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013
Delegations 398, 399

Information generated and received by ANU staff in the course of conducting business on behalf of ANU is a record and should be captured by an authorised recordkeeping system. To learn more about University records and recordkeeping practice at ANU, see ANU recordkeeping and Policy: Records and archives management.

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Policy
Freedom of information
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Staff access to personnel records
Freedom of information requests
Guidelines
Processing freedom of information requests
Access to ANU archives