Higher Education Institutions
Public higher education institutions in North Carolina include community colleges and institutions in the University of North Carolina system. These organizations, along with any entities with whom they contract to perform the public business, are subject to the requirements of North Carolina’s Public Records Act (G.S. 132). The retention and disposition schedules that follow are the tools created by the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) to assist employees of public higher education institutions in managing the records in their offices. These schedules list records series commonly found in higher education offices, provide an assessment of their value, and indicate when (and if) these records should be destroyed. For K-12 institutions, see the Local Public School Unit schedule under local government agencies. For information about academic records from defunct proprietary, church-supported, or other non-public post-secondary schools and colleges in North Carolina, look under researcher services.
These schedules are an agreement between the higher education institution and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, serving as the inventory and schedule that DNCR is directed to provide by G.S. 121-5(c) and G.S. 132-8.
- Colleges in the North Carolina Community College System Records Retention and Disposition Schedule
- UNC System General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule
These schedules must be approved by the individual institution before they can be used to authorize the destruction of public records. Please send a copy of the completed signature page to the Records Analysis Unit, Government Records Section, 4615 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4615 or fax it to 919-715-3627. If you have any questions about whether your institution has approved the current schedule, please contact a Records Management Analyst. Kayla Leonard is the analyst currently assigned to work with UNC system institutions and Alice Shahan is the analyst assigned to community colleges.
If you have records that you cannot find in your retention and disposition schedule, please contact a Records Management Analyst. The analyst will help determine whether there is an existing item on the schedule that specifies the disposition; if the records are not represented on the current schedule and are actively being maintained, the analyst can help you submit a Request for Change in Records Schedule. If there are unscheduled records that are no longer being created or received, the analyst will help determine whether the records have historical value or should receive permission for destruction. If the latter is true, we will ask you to complete a Request for Disposal of Unscheduled Records.