Students Agitated After TISS (Mumbai) Decides to Shut Down 3 Centres

TISS that is the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai has reportedly shut down three centres of its operations. Moreover, it has also discontinued/terminated the services of about 25 teachers. Students of the institute, who are in a fix, have demanded clarification and reasons behind the drastic steps that have been taken in no time.

At present, a majority of the students of TISS are occupied with the internships that they are pursuing while some have gone home for vacation. The students were all the more shocked because these announcements have been made in their absence from the campus.

The representative community of TISS Student's Union met on 27th March 2017 to discuss the issue. But because they had no clarity on the proceedings despite connecting to the faculty members as well. Since the Union estimated that at least 150 students belonging to various programmes such as Master of Arts (MA), Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) and Ph.D. (Doctorate of Philosophy) will be impacted by these decisions, they have collectively decided to write a letter to the authorities seeking their response.

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Out of the 25 professors whose services have been terminated, many are research mentors and guides of students who currently in the final stages of completing their thesis. This has led to students being upset and not sure of what is going to happen next, with their future in jeopardy.

When the institute released a statement, it announced that the UGC funded centres namely Advanced Centre for Women Studies, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policies, and Nodal Centre for Excellence (part of Human Rights Schemes) will be shut down because the University Grants Commission has failed to release funds/designated amount of money for its functioning. The Director of the institute, S Parasuraman while making these announcements also added that contracts of the various faculty members which were hired for these centres in particular, will automatically lapse on 31st March with the financial year coming to an end. The institute does not have the funds to release salaries of its professors and hence it may discontinue some courses and terminate contracts of the teachers.

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Students, on the other hand, feel that TISS shall follow up with UGC for fund related issues rather than to communicate to the professors that they will have to leave.

With inputs from Hindustan Times