Thank you to everyone who sent replies either to the list or directly. The decision was made not to include unpublished mid-term outputs for doctoral theses as individual records. We have opted to add the annual colloquium handbook as a single item.
The decision was influenced by the principle that the repository is intended to hold permanent records of work and should not be subject to frequent updating. The fact that removing records (on the basis of failure to complete) has a knock-on effect on the many web tools that harvest meta data from digital repositories, and is also potentially sensitive for the individual. We also took into account the additional workload of checking mid-term unpublished work for 3rd party copyright material (which would still be done but within the relevant faculty).
The University has defined registration periods so the issue of knowing when a student is definitely not going to complete is effectively managed by these regulations.
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