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Course Retention Policy
Course Retention Policy
Last modified: Monday, 23 March 2026, 3:52 PM
Content & User Retention
Moodle(LMS) content and user retention
Content retention
Moodle module content is currently accessible for the previous six academic years plus the current academic year.
Content are defined as data or files submitted directly to and stored within the Moodle system. This includes Moodle assignment submissions, forum posts, quiz responses, resource files, database entries and wiki entries.
For academic year 2025-26, Moodle holds data from 2017-18 on Moodle 4.2.
Note that data for the 'old' Moodle system was only retained until **.
Moodle module content excludes :
- content stored on external systems but displayed in Moodle via a plugin - this includes lecture capture recordings, video resources and Turnitin.
Retention of assessment data
Assessment data on Moodle is retained in line with Assessment Regulations.
At the end of the period of retention, retained work and the records of marks will be disposed of confidentially.
Taken from Senate Regulations Assessment Regulations 2025-26 (APPENDIX 4 - RECORD AND DISCLOSURE OF ASSESSMENT RESULTS)
| Item(s) | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Coursework coversheets, feedback proforma and examination scripts (all formats): | Current academic year, plus one additional year |
| Records documenting marks Awarded for submitted/completed assessments, as presented to the Assessment Board, including details of the consideration of Extenuating Circumstances and academic misconduct | Current academic year, plus six further academic years. |
| Records of appeals panels and decisions | Current academic year, plus six further academic years. |
| Records documenting Awards, classifications, individual Modules and assessment components |
Current academic year, plus six further academic years. |
- Student user management:
Student Moodle accounts are created as part of the University's online registration process . Moodle accounts are authenticated via LDAP and students lose access to Moodle on expiration of their computing services account on graduation.
Expired accounts may be suspended in Moodle as an additional safeguard.
- Staff user management:
Staff Moodle accounts are created on the staff member's first login to Moodle. Moodle accounts are authenticated via LDAP and staff lose access to Moodle on expiration of their computing services account.
Expired accounts may be suspended in Moodle as an additional safeguard. Staff must be manually unenrolled from modules once they leave the University so that they no longer show up as Lecturers on Moodle modules. This is normally done by school administrators.
Moodle log retention
The retention period was set to 1,000 days on 18th July 2022.
This means that Moodle logs beyond the data retention period will be deleted. This is maintained daily so that only the last 1,000 of days of logs are available.
Backup policy
The Moodle system is hosted by the ICT Dept on servers that are onsite.
We currently operate daily backups of both file store and database (around 1am each day) and keep daily backups for a week, weekly backups for a month and monthly backups for a year. The application layer is also backed up and we maintain our code repository on GitHub to enable rapid deployment of releases.
Moodle module course content can be backed up by any enrolled Lecturer or category-level Programme Administrator.
Best practices for saving course materials
If there are materials from earlier course sites that you wish to save, there are three quick and easy options:
- You can create a course backup file (now called course reuse) and save it to Google Drive or other storage. This file will later need to be restored within Moodle before you can pull out individual items, but it maintains the organization of the files more exactly. It also includes all of your Moodle activities such as assignments, quizzes, etc. The ability to restore a course backup completely accurately can decrease over time.
- You can download all instructor files and save the resulting folder full of files to your Google Drive or elsewhere. This allows you to pick and choose to re-use individual files, but does not maintain the course structure or any course activities. This solution should have high longevity.
- You can print and/or save a PDF of your course page as a record of your course organization. Our Moodle course pages are printer friendly, so that a printed course page can serve in many cases as a course syllabus. This solution has high longevity.
Lecture Capture content and user retention
Content retention
MS Teams delete Lecture Capture recordings that are two years or older on 1st June each year.
Please refer to the Lecture Capture Retention Process (below) for further information.
Retention of MS Teams assessment data
If the system is used for recording of assessed work e.g. presentations and requirements state the recordings should be retained for a period longer than current plus 1 past year, staff are advised to take backups by downloading recordings ahead of 1st June each year.
Turnitin content and user retention
Retention of assessment data
Turnitin is contractually obliged to make reasonable attempts to store assignments for up to 180 days after the class end date. A class has a default end date which is typically twelve months from the creation date, or set to the date of the latest post date for the Turnitin assignments in the class.
The expiration length of twelve months was introduced in February 2023. Modules created before this date will still be subject to the old six-month expiration period.
Although Turnitin make every effort to keep papers accessible in perpetuity, in some rare scenarios, papers may become inaccessible. You can download Turnitin assignments for retention by selecting the link to the Turnitin assignment in Moodle and selecting one of the Export options from the Summary tab.
Assignments can also be completely overwritten due to resubmissions, if Turnitin assignments are set up to allow resubmissions until the due date. Additionally, paper deletion requests can be made by the Turnitin Account Administrator (Contact via the Library), regardless of class end dates. Turnitin can permanently delete a paper from their database so that it can no longer be used as a searchable source. For contractual reasons, all requests for paper deletions from the Turnitin database must be submitted in writing by the University's Turnitin Administrator.
The expiration length of twelve months was introduced in February 2023. Modules created before this date will still be subject to the old six-month expiration period.
Although Turnitin make every effort to keep papers accessible in perpetuity, in some rare scenarios, papers may become inaccessible. You can download Turnitin assignments for retention by selecting the link to the Turnitin assignment in Moodle and selecting one of the Export options from the Summary tab.
Assignments can also be completely overwritten due to resubmissions, if Turnitin assignments are set up to allow resubmissions until the due date. Additionally, paper deletion requests can be made by the Turnitin Account Administrator (Contact via the Library), regardless of class end dates. Turnitin can permanently delete a paper from their database so that it can no longer be used as a searchable source. For contractual reasons, all requests for paper deletions from the Turnitin database must be submitted in writing by the University's Turnitin Administrator.