Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was established in 1936 as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. In 1944, it was renamed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The year 1964 was an important landmark in the history of the Institute when it was declared Deemed to be a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act (UGC), 1956. Currently, TISS operates on four campuses: Mumbai (Maharashtra), Tuljapur off Campus (Maharashtra), Guwahati off campus (Assam), and Hyderabad Off Campus (Telangana). The academic governance of TISS is based on 19 schools and five independent centres across campuses. TISS structures learning programmes into six streams through four campuses and schools. They include Under Graduation (UG), Post Graduation (PG), Doctoral Programme, Short Term Programme, Online Programme, and Open and Distance Learning Programmes (ODL). The Institute offers 5 four-year Undergraduate (UG), 52 Postgraduate (PG) programmes (one / two years), 18 school-based Ph. D programmes and 13 flexible short-term programmes. There are around 4500 students pan India enrolled across programmes. In addition to these academic streams, the School of Vocational Education (SVE) offers 59 vocational education programs in 18 skill sectors, with 34 undergraduate B. Voc. programs, 19 Postgraduate Diploma Programs, and 6 stand-alone Diploma programs. The school has 4576 students on roll. These programmes closely align with multi-dimensional socio-economic, psychological, and environmental contexts that involve communities, government, industry, and civil society organisations. While these learning programmes diverge in scope and vision, grounding in the field or grass route realities remains a core competency of the system. Another crucial factor across the TISS learning system is its commitment to inclusion and sustainable futures. The faculty and students transcend across disciplines, culminating in a culture of transdisciplinarity.

TISS has 280 faculty, talent drawn from institutions of national importance, central universities, prominent state universities, other higher education institutions of excellence, and globally renowned universities, which foster the multi and interdisciplinary nature of the Institute. There are 510 support staff to support the teaching-learning process at TISS. 

TISS teaching programmes follow a credit-based semester system. For each credit, there is one assessment component. Because of the heterogeneity of learners and outcome orientation, assessment usually has two dimensions: individual and team performances. Across the levels of learning, the support systems emphasise narrowing the difference between learners. Praxis-oriented pedagogy is central to the design of all TISS study programmes. A significant component of experiential learning at TISS is the students' and faculty members' visits to the field. An essential highlight of the ICT adoption by TISS is using the TISS Online Learning (TISSOL) platform. Faculty use this platform to share course study materials and assignments and conduct quizzes, examinations, and evaluations. Moreover, the Institute encourages and uses digital assistive technologies for differently-abled learners. 

As a premier Institute in Social Sciences, TISS is committed to the highest ethical research and practice standards. Field Action Projects (FAPs) are unique to the Institute. Collectively, these address various societal issues and reach different marginalised communities. Besides serving the communities, most FAPs impact government policies and programmes, demonstrate implementable models, and initiate reforms and good practices. 

As per the need and evolving national and international frameworks, TISS contributes to knowledge production and development initiatives. Since 2015-16, TISS has engaged with Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a basic scaffolding for a unified response amongst international and intra-national communities to address critical, persistent, and newly emerging issues of poverty, hunger, inequality, conflict, and climate change. Indeed, this intuitive and compassionate character of the Institute is of great relevance to today's interconnected world, as indicated by the synergy between TISS's work and the evolution of global thought as embodied by SDGs.