Document and Database Management

General Principle

Every credential issued under the WISE system is only as reliable as the record that supports it. This page sets out the retention periods, storage media, backup arrangements, and integrity requirements that an accredited school must observe in respect of the records it holds on behalf of its students and of WEQSC.

Records governed by the WEQSC framework fall into two categories:

• Physical Records — Held in original paper or other tangible form;
• Digital Records — Held in electronic form on a non-corruptible medium.

Where a record exists in both physical and digital form, the digital record is the authoritative version.

Categories of Records

The following categories of records are governed by this page:

• Student Records;
• Academic Records;
• Examination Records;
• Attendance Records;
• Welfare Records;
• Financial Records;
• Governance Records;
• Communication Records.

A record is governed by this page regardless of whether it is held at the school's premises, at an off-site location controlled by the school, or in the Portal.

Physical Record Retention

Every Physical Record must be retained for a period of five years from the date of its creation or receipt, whichever is later.

Where a record relates to an ongoing matter — for example, an open grievance, an unresolved audit finding, or a pending appeal — the five-year period does not begin to run until the matter is closed.

Where a record relates to a matter in litigation or under investigation, the record must be retained for the duration of the matter and for any period thereafter required by the applicable law or by WEQSC.

Physical Records must be stored in a manner that preserves their legibility, protects them from loss, damage, or unauthorised access, and permits their prompt retrieval.

Where no Digital Record exists at the time of expiry of the five-year period, the Physical Record must be digitised before destruction, and the Digital Record retained indefinitely. The digitisation must be certified by a member of the staff of the school and recorded in the Portal.

Digital Record Retention

Every Digital Record must be retained for an unlimited period. There is no time at which a Digital Record may be deleted, destroyed, or permitted to become unreadable.

Digital Records must be held on a non-corruptible medium, being a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid-State Drive (SSD), USB storage device, optical disc (DVD or equivalent), or other medium approved by WEQSC, and not being any volatile or transient storage medium.

Digital Records must be held in a format that is:

• Non-proprietary or otherwise readable using publicly available software at the time of audit;
• Encrypted in accordance with the cybersecurity requirements of the WEQSC framework;
• Free from dependence on a single vendor, operating system, or platform;
• Capable of being migrated to a successor medium without loss of content or integrity.

Backups

The school must maintain, at all times, at least two offline backups of its Digital Records, on separate physical media, stored in separate physical locations within the control of the school or in a location notified to WEQSC.

The school must test the readability of each offline backup at least once per academic session, and must record the result of the test in the Portal.

Where a backup is found to be unreadable, incomplete, or otherwise defective, the school must create a replacement backup within thirty days and must record the fact in the Portal.

Digital Records must be migrated to a new medium before the medium on which they are currently held reaches the end of its useful working life, as indicated by the manufacturer or by industry practice. Migration must be verified and recorded in the Portal.

WISE Server Backup

In addition to the backups of the school, WEQSC maintains a centralised backup of all Digital Records submitted to the Portal, on the infrastructure of WEQSC.

Where a school loses a Digital Record as a result of hardware failure, natural disaster, or similar event, it may request restoration from the WISE server backup.

Where a school requests restoration, the fact of the loss and the fact of the restoration are recorded in the compliance record of the school, and may be considered at audit as evidence of the adequacy of the backup arrangements of the school.

Record Integrity

Records must be maintained in a form that preserves their integrity, meaning that:

• The record is a faithful representation of the information it purports to record;
• The record has not been altered except through the modification procedure set out in the Data Modification Governance page of this portal;
• Where the record has been modified, the modification is recorded in the audit trail;
• The record remains readable and retrievable throughout the retention period.

A school must not:

• Delete, alter, or obscure any record, in whole or in part, without WEQSC approval;
• Create a copy of any record that differs in any material respect from the original;
• Hold any record on a storage medium that does not satisfy the requirements of this page;
• Represent a record as authoritative where it is not the version most recently approved by WEQSC.

A breach of these prohibitions is a Critical Finding, and may constitute grounds for suspension.

Record Retrieval

The school must be able to retrieve any record within its retention period, in response to a request from WEQSC, the local education authority, a court, or a student or parent exercising a right of access under the Data Protection and Privacy page of this portal.

Retrieval must ordinarily be possible within five business days of a request. Where a request requires retrieval of a large number of records or records held in an off-site backup, the school must notify the requester of the extended period and must retrieve the records within twenty business days.

Ownership of Records

Student Records and Academic Records are held by the school in trust for the student to whom they relate, subject to the obligations of the school under the WEQSC framework.

The student, or the parent or guardian of the student where the student is a minor, is entitled to obtain a copy of the Student Record at any time, on written request and on payment of any reasonable copying or administrative charge.

Where a school ceases to operate, whether by closure, insolvency, or de-accreditation, Student Records must be transferred to WEQSC in accordance with the Accountability section of this portal.

Compliance and Audit

Compliance with this page is verified at the annual digital audit. At audit, the school must produce:

• A register of the categories of records held, with the retention period applicable to each;
• Evidence of the storage medium and location of each category of Digital Record;
• Evidence of the offline backups and their most recent readability tests;
• A record of any data loss in the preceding twelve months, with the action taken;
• A record of any digitisation undertaken.

Failure to produce the documents listed above is a Major Finding.

Breach — Consequences

A breach of any provision of this page is subject to the audit regime and, where applicable, to the suspension and termination regime set out in the Accountability section of this portal.

Conclusion

The document and database management requirements set out in this page ensure that every WISE credential is supported by a reliable and permanent record. All document and database procedures not expressly set out in this portal must follow the Secretariat's official bylaws.