TISS terminates contracts of nearly 100 teaching, non-teaching staff

This move, which has shocked the TISS community, leaves many long-serving staff members facing unemployment. Last year, the Centre converted TISS into a fully publicly funded institute

Mumbai: The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) terminated contracts of nearly 100 teaching and non-teaching staff members on June 28. The termination letters issued by the institute underlined that the contracts would not be renewed and their services would end on June 30, 2024.

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This move, which has shocked the TISS community, leaves many long-serving staff members facing unemployment. Last year, the Centre converted TISS into a fully publicly funded institute.

Professor Manoj Kumar Tiwari, in-charge VC of TISS said, “These staff were appointed under various projects under the funding of Tata Trust. The fundings for these projects have stopped in the last few months. Considering this, we allowed these teachers to work under clock hour basis in the institute. But now we are unable to garner financial aid, so we decided to stop their services. We will reappoint them once funding from the Trust resumes.”

Following the decision, the Progressive Students Forum (PSF), a students’ collective from the TISS, in a post on social media platform stated that while the exact number of affected employees remains unclear, the mass termination is expected to create a significant shortage of both teaching and non-teaching staff at the institute.

Students have voiced their concerns about potential negative impact on the student-faculty ratio, as evidenced by previous years’ National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) data. They fear that the current faculty will be insufficient to meet the needs of the student body, and that the termination of these positions might pave the way for politically motivated appointments in the future.

“TISS, a prestigious institute with a history spanning nearly 90 years, has earned its status as a leading social science institution through the contributions of its faculty and staff. Last year, the union government transformed TISS into a fully public-funded institute. However, this transition has led to delays in student aid and increased financial pressures on students from economically and socially marginalized backgrounds. The latest decision to terminate staff positions further highlights the BJP government’s perceived anti-education and anti-TISS stance,” the statement read.

PSF at TISS has strongly condemned the mass termination and has called for immediate action. The body has demanded that the TISS administration revoke the terminations and collaborate with the union government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) to secure funding for these positions. Alternatively, they urge urgent discussions with the Tata Education Trust to reinstate funding and protect these jobs.