ASSESSMENT OF RECORDS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG THE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF OF UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The University of Education, Winneba (UEW), like other higher educational institutions in Ghana, is semi-autonomous. This is because it receives a portion of its funding from the state, students’ fees and stakeholders. As a result of these activities, the University generates large volumes of physical and electronic data and documents on a daily basis. Undoubtedly, these documents and data are of high importance and as such need to be strictly preserved. Universities are legally bound to retain and preserve documents as a record of their activities and proceedings.
Institutions create records to support the activities they carry out. However, if these records are not managed properly, they will not provide the necessary support and information might be lost causing problems for the institution. To provide an efficient and effective administration that ensures that institutions run as smoothly as possible, there should be proper management of records. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15489 (2001) explained records management as the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of an information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.