Policies for Retention of Application Documents
Office of Graduate Programs
It is the policy of the Office of Graduate Programs to retain and purge documents (both paper-based and imaged) according to these guidelines.
Admitted students
Policy: Files of admitted students are to remain in the academic department for the student’s academic file. Departments determine how to store files. Imaged admission documents will remain in ImageNow indefinitely, but may be purged according to guidelines set forth by the Office of the Registrar, Office of Graduate Programs, or the academic departments.
Recommendations for departments:
· Materials submitted for an application are the property of the University. You can develop your policies based on that assumption.
· Documents that are retained elsewhere should not be kept. Keep only those documents that could not be obtained from another source.
· Documents that should be kept while the student is active include the application to the university, official transcripts from colleges other than UM-Flint (the Registrar maintains the official UM-Flint transcript), entrance exam scores, and copies of licensures and/or certifications as required by your program.
· Letters of recommendation carry a special provision that a student can waive or not waive their right of access. If they have not waived their right of access (as indicated on the recommendation form), they are allowed to view the letters only after they have registered for classes. A copy of the letter(s) may be provided upon request. If they have waived their right of access, the students may not view them, and it is recommended that the documents be destroyed in their first term of enrollment. If the waiver information has been left blank, make the assumption that they have waived their right of access.
· It is recommended that you destroy other subjective admission documents (statements of purpose, answers to supplemental application questions, interview notes, reviewer notes, etc.) after the admission decision has been made and the student has enrolled in their first term.
· It is recommended that you destroy admission documents after a student has graduated or when there has been no activity from the student in the past 5 years.
Denied applicants
Policy: Files of denied applicants should be returned to the Office of Graduate Programs. The Office of Graduate Programs will keep the documents for one full calendar year from the term of application.
Rationale: The purpose of keeping denied files for one year is to allow the applicant to apply again and utilize some of the same documents upon the applicant’s request. For example, a denied applicant’s application documents for Fall 2006 would be kept until the beginning of the Fall 2007 semester, then destroyed early in the Fall 2007 semester (both paper and imaged documents). If a denied applicant chooses to reapply, he/she must submit a new application and will be encouraged to submit new evidence of his/her admissibility to the program, but it is left up to the applicant to determine what would make him/her admissible.
Incomplete/Withdrawn applicants
Policy: Unless a department requests it or has an agreement with the Office of Graduate Programs to release admission files lacking certain documents, incomplete files are not released to the departments. The Office of Graduate Programs will withdraw or cancel a student’s application for the intended entry term soon after the application deadline for the program if it is determined that the student will not or cannot complete their admission file in time for an admission decision. The Office of Graduate Programs will keep the files of incomplete applications for one full calendar year from the term of application to allow the applicant to change their intended entry term to a future term upon the applicant’s request.
For example, a denied applicant’s application documents for Fall 2006 would be kept until the beginning of the Fall 2007 semester, then destroyed early in the Fall 2007 semester (both paper and imaged documents).
Original: May 5, 2006
Updated: December 11, 2008; June 17, 2009