The purpose of culling is that the university’s system and archives should not be burdened by information that has no direct value. For personal data, culling can also aim to protect the individual's personal privacy.

The majority of the university's information consists of official documents. The basic principle is that official documents should be preserved forever. Official documents may only be culled if there is support in the archives law and the associated regulations. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates the destruction of personal data in work material/drafts and other information that is not an official document.

It is important that the culling of records is done at the prescribed time and that it involves a complete deletion of the information. The culled records should not be recoverable.

What should be culled?

The information management plan describes which information (official documents or not) is to be culled and what is to be preserved and archived within each university process.

Of little importance to the university's activities

In the information management plan, there are also a number of general rules that apply to the entire university regardless of the field of activity. Information that is considered to be of little importance for the university's activities should be culled when it is no longer needed. You, as an employee, are responsible for making the assessment of when the information is no longer needed. It is important that information, especially if it contains personal data, is not stored for too long.

General rules regarding the culling of information:

• Letters and correspondence with external parties, which are of little importance to the university's activities, should be culled when no longer needed. e.g. routine questions, mass mailings, course invitations
• Internal messages should be culled when they are no longer needed, as long as they do not add information to a case.
• Work material (drafts/unfinished material) should be culled when no longer needed, as long as it does not add information to a case.
• Copies of information that has already been archived, should be culled when they are no longer needed.