TISS lays off 100 staff members across 4 campuses amid funding crisis

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has reportedly terminated the services of around 100 staff members across its four campuses after not receiving the expected funds from the Tata Trust.

The TISS administration informed nearly 100 staff members that their contracts would not be renewed, ending their service on June 30. This unexpected move has left many long-serving staff members facing unemployment. Some of them had reportedly been working at the institute for over a decade. 

TISS became a fully publicly funded institute last year, but these staff members, previously funded by the Tata Education Trust, now face job loss.

Contractual employees laid off 

All the dismissed staffers, including 55 faculty members and some 60 non-teaching employees, were contractual employees.

Among the dismissed faculty members, 20 were reportedly employed on the Mumbai campus, 15 in Hyderabad, 14 in Guwahati, and six in Tuljapur. In Guwahati, half of the teaching staff and the entire non-teaching staff have reportedly been dismissed.

The remaining teaching staff across all the TISS campuses are permanent employees on the University Grants Commission (UGC) payroll.

Funding stopped

According to media reports, Professor Manoj Kumar Tiwari, acting Vice-Chancellor of TISS, said the funding for various projects from the Tata Trust had stopped, leading to this decision. He mentioned that these staff members were working on a clock-hour basis due to the lack of funds, and the institute is now unable to sustain their employment. He assured that they would be reappointed once the funding resumes.

In response, the Progressive Students Forum (PSF) at TISS expressed concerns on social media, saying that the mass termination would impact both teaching and non-teaching staff. Students fear this will negatively affect the student-faculty ratio and worry about the possibility of politically motivated appointments in the future.

TISS facing financial pressure

The PSF pointed out that the TISS, a prestigious institution with nearly 90 years of history, has faced increased financial pressures since becoming publicly funded. This has affected students from marginalised backgrounds.

PSF condemned the mass terminations and urged the TISS administration to reverse the decision. They also called for collaboration with the union government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) to secure funding or negotiate with the Tata Education Trust to reinstate the funding and save these jobs.