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Student Record Retention and Disposal

School of Public Health Policy

Boston University School of Public Health complies with state and federal regulations and professional practice standards in matters of records retention policies and procedures. In keeping with regulations and standards, the retention schedules for School of Public Health student records are as follows:

1. Items removed from student file upon graduation or withdrawal

  • Add/drop forms
  • Scheduling forms
  • Letters of recommendation and admission materials not removed by admissions
  • Transcripts from other colleges
  • Transfer unit requests that are rejected
  • Correspondence not related to academic progress or FERPA disclosure

2. Items retained in student file for seven years after graduation or date of last attendance

  • Acceptance letter
  • Application for admission or readmission
  • Entrance exams and test score reports
  • Military documents
  • Financial aid documents
  • Name change authorizations
  • Correspondence related to FERPA disclosures
  • Advanced placement, waivers, transfer unit approvals
  • Placement tests or scores
  • Waivers for rights to access to view letters of recommendation
  • Degree audits
  • Requests for withdrawal
  • Academic actions unrelated to academic honesty
  • International student documents (I-20, employment authorization, passport, I-94, statement of financial responsibility, statement of educational costs). If a student wishes, they may be returned to student.

3. Items retained permanently in student file

  • Graduation application
  • Final transcript
  • Information pertaining to academic honesty or violations of academic honesty policy
  • Grade change forms if in student record
  • Correspondence related to FERPA disclosures or student consent for disclosure

4. Information and reports retained for one year in the aggregate

  • Enrollment verifications
  • Registration forms
  • Add/drop forms

5. Information and reports retained for three years in the aggregate

  • Scholarship forms

6. Information and reports retained permanently in the aggregate

  • Graduation lists
  • Enrollment statistics
  • Degree statistics
  • Commencement programs
  • Schedules of classes
  • Catalogues
  • Requests for disclosures of FERPA information

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