Skeleton filing scheme

This webpage links to an outline University filing scheme developed using a pragmatic functional model. 

The outline scheme is intended to provide you with a starting point in developing a filing scheme for your business area.  As it is an outline scheme, to reflect the functions of your business area you will need to delete some of the functions and activities, and add others. 

For the most part, the outline scheme covers the first two, or in some cases, three levels of the filing hierarchy.  The first level of the hierarchy reflects the top-level functions of the University; these are then broken down into activities to give level two of the scheme.  Level three represents a further narrowing down of these activities, while individual files should only be found at level four.  You will need to populate the remaining levels of the hierarchy based on your analysis of the functions and activities of your business area.  The main guidance on developing a filing scheme tells you how to do this.

The order of the functions and activities listed in the hierarchy is not an indication of their relative importance; functions and activities are simply assigned the next number in the hierarchy as and when they are identified.

This outline scheme is closely based on a JISC study of the records lifecycle, and on a filing scheme developed for the University’s (former) Policy and Planning department, both from Emmerson Consulting.

The following schools within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences have further developed the outline filing scheme to provide one that is especially suitable for schools: Divinity; Arts, Culture and Environment; and Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.