Retention Requirements from External Entities

Guidelines on how to handle situations when external organizations’ retention guidelines do not line up with the University’s state-approved Records Retention Schedules.

Overview

External entities (granting agencies, accrediting organizations, etc.) may publish retention guidelines that cover the same material as the University’s State-approved Records Retention Schedules.  Often, the retention periods in both do not match.

The University’s retention schedules are kept on file with the State of Illinois per the Illinois State Records Act.  Hence, adhering to the State’s schedules is a matter of law, and not policy or regulation.

Audits, legal holds, litigation, or pending FOIA requests may also require records to be retained past the periods stipulated in the University’s Records Retention Schedules.  In these circumstances, please follow the directions of University Counsel, the FOIA office, and auditors.

Best Practices

External Retention Period Longer than the University's

  • You may retain the material for this longer period.
  • RIMS encourages you to create a Records and Administrative Data Management (RADMan) Plan or other internal note to document this decision.  We can assist with creating such a plan.
  • This does not mean that items should be held indefinitely.

External Retention Period Shorter than the University's

  • You must follow the longer duration from the State-approved Records Retention Schedules.
  • Adhering to an external entity's retention guidelines does not satisfy the retention requirements of the State of Illinois.

Further Action

Please contact us if you have any questions, would like to discuss retention period discrepancies, or have a common record type that does not appear on a State-approved Schedule.

Have a question that isn't answered here or need more specialized guidance? Please reach out!

Records and Information Management Services 

Visit the Contact RIMS page of our website to get in touch!

Urbana Office: Rm. 450 Henry Administration Building (HAB), M/C 359

Chicago Office: Rm. 258 Roosevelt Road Building (RRB), M/C 010


Keywords:
retention, retention schedule, records retention, records retention schedule, funding agency, granting agency, accrediting organization 
Doc ID:
157115
Owned by:
Spenser B. in University of Illinois System
Created:
2025-12-05
Updated:
2025-12-17
Sites:
University of Illinois System