This article explains how submission retention works in Inspera Assessment and how it interacts with the existing options for deleting candidate submissions.

In short: Submission retention sets a minimum time a submission must be kept before it can be permanently deleted. If retention is enabled, it takes priority over manual and automatic deletion options.

What submission retention means

Submission retention is a tenant-level setting that prevents candidate submissions from being permanently deleted before a configured number of days has passed.

This helps institutions meet internal or regulatory requirements to keep submissions for a minimum period.

Retention is configured per tenant. It applies to both existing and new submissions in that tenant.

How it relates to deletion options

Inspera already supports deletion options such as candidate-initiated deletion and automatic deletion after submission or after grading. When submission retention is enabled, those deletion options still exist, but they cannot delete a submission before the retention period has ended.

• Candidate deletion: candidates cannot delete a submission while it is still within the retention period.

• Automatic deletion after grading: deletion will only happen after the retention period has passed and the auto-deletion rules are met.

• Automatic deletion after submission: deletion will only happen after the retention period has passed and the auto-deletion rules are met.

Think of retention as a safeguard: deletion can happen only when both conditions are true: the retention period has ended, and a deletion option is enabled.

Which rule takes priority?

If submission retention is enabled, it overrides deletion settings during the retention period.

The effective deletion point is therefore the later of these two:

• The end of the retention period

• The point when the configured deletion rule would normally delete the submission

Examples

• Retention: 730 days, auto-deletion: 365 days
  The submission will not be deleted after 365 days. It becomes eligible only after 730 days.

• Retention: 365 days, auto-deletion: 730 days
  The submission will still not be deleted until 730 days, because the auto-deletion rule ends later.

• Retention enabled, no auto-deletion enabled
  The submission is retained for the minimum period, but it is not deleted automatically once that period ends.

Important things to know

• Retention does not itself trigger deletion. It only prevents deletion before the minimum period has passed.

• If no deletion option is enabled, submissions will continue to be kept after the retention period ends.

• If retention is enabled, candidate sign-off is unavailable until the retention period has expired.

• Changes apply at tenant level and affect submissions across the tenant.

Important: deleting a submission is irreversible. Once a submission is permanently deleted, it cannot be recovered.

How to enable or update submission retention

Submission retention can only be configured by Inspera's service desk team. Universities and institutions cannot enable or modify this setting on their own.

To enable submission retention or update the retention period, please reach out to the Inspera service desk team.

The default retention period is 730 days.

Related article

For details about the available deletion configurations, see Available configurations for deletion of candidate submissions.