About Us

The 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 as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The year 1964 was an important landmark in the history of the Institute, when it was declared to be a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act (UGC), 1956.

Since its inception, the Vision of the TISS has been to be an institution of excellence in higher education that continually responds to changing social realities through the development and application of knowledge, towards creating a people-centered, ecologically sustainable and just society that promotes and protects dignity, equality, social justice and human rights for all.

Credits : tiss.edu

Our Vision & Mission

In pursuance of its vision and guiding principles, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences organizes teaching programs to facilitate the development of competent and committed professionals for practice, research and teaching; undertakes research; develops and disseminates knowledge; and reaches out to the larger community through extension, at the local, national, regional and international levels. Vision of the TISS has been to be an institution of excellence in higher education that continually responds to changing social realities through the development and application of knowledge, towards creating a people-centered, ecologically sustainable and just society that promotes and protects dignity, equality, social justice and human rights for all. The TISS works towards its vision through:

• Creation and provision of socially relevant and high-quality professional education in a wide range of inter-disciplinary areas of Social Sciences to a larger number of students from all sections of society in the country.
• Facilitation of autonomous research and dissemination of knowledge.
• Support knowledge creation through strong M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes and post-Doctoral scholars.
• Strategic extension, field action and advocacy through training and capacity building of State and non-State institutions and personnel.
• Initiate field action and advocacy to demonstrate and facilitate creation of policies and programmes.
• Professional response to natural and human-made disasters, through participation in relief and rehabilitation activities.

Director’s Message -

Vice-Chancellor, Director Prof. Shalini Bharat Welcome to TISS, a multi-campus, integrated, community engaged public university of India. As students you are now part of India’s foremost social science university founded in 1936 by Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust to create human service professionals for addressing the emerging needs of Indian society. Continuing with that rich legacy, TISS offers some of the most contemporary and socially relevant, globally acknowledged study programs in social sciences and applied human service professions. TISS is among the top 40 Indian universities today and one of the finest in terms of promoting excellence in teaching, research, field/ internship- based learning, and social innovation and social start-ups. Led by its vision of equity and social justice TISS promotes and protects social diversity on campus and takes great pride in its pan-India student and faculty composition. Gradually, the campus is moving towards becoming international too!

TISS faculty are unique in many distinct ways. They are engaged in social research on issues as diverse and as topical as, impact of covid pandemic on mental health of women, children and health providers; water resources management; participatory irrigation management; climate change and action; renewable energy and sustainability; disaster risk mitigation; migration and migrants; women and mental health; human trafficking; disability and access; social impact assessment of state development projects; structural drivers of TB and HIV epidemic and counseling, to name just a few. This research does not merely generate new knowledge but has important implications for programmatic interventions, advocacy and policy making. TISS faculty is also widely acknowledged for the creation and operation of field action projects (FAPs) as interventions to address challenging social issues facing communities in difficult geographic settings or among the most vulnerable and marginalized population groups or around themes that are both topical and contested. Currently TISS faculty lead 18 such FAPs. Visit the links/ pages to learn more about this interesting body of research and field-based work of our faculty.

TISS publications are found in the leading national and international journals and from best known publishers. Besides these publications, TISS faculty are thought leaders in niche areas of social audit, forest and land rights, public policy, decent work, health related stigma, gender diversity, social development and sustainability, urban planning and governance, disaster risk assessment and reduction, digital health and mental health, and so on. A large number of our faculty are part of various advisory boards, think tanks and policy groups of state and central government, civil society groups and national and international NGOs and UN bodies.

TISS provides a conducive and supportive environment for all its students who make life across all the campuses rich and energetic with their scholastic acumen, lively discussions and debates, and abounding creativity, talent and zest for life!

Our Achievements-

The synergy between teaching, research, field action and extension has enabled the TISS to continue to shape planning, policy and programme formulation, foster critical rethinking, and development of people-centered interventions.

• The synergy between teaching, research, field action and extension has enabled the TISS to continue to shape planning, policy and programme formulation, foster critical rethinking, and development of people-centered interventions.


• TISS is the Principal Recipient of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in a countrywide project for capacity-building of higher institutions of learning in HIV/AIDS Counselling. Named Saksham, the project will conduct master training programmes and help to build infrastructure to develop the capacities of 40 academic institutions all over the country, which, in turn, will provide supportive supervision and training to 12,000 counsellors working in the national HIV/AIDS counselling programme. The Global Fund has awarded Saksham an A-1 rating.


• As a part of post-tsunami reconstruction in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the TISS has embarked on a programme of capacity-building of local communities in sustainable development. In collaboration with ANI Administration, TISS is in the process of setting up Disaster Early Warning System and structures for Rural Knowledge Centers.


• The TISS is recognized by the World Health Organization as a collaborating Centre for Health, Policy Research and Training. The UNAIDS Centre for Behavioral Research on HIV/AIDS is also located at TISS.


• The TISS has been working with the GoM to design an Outcome Budget covering 12 key government departments. This initiative is an attempt to link public expenditure to definitive positive outcomes rather than mere outputs so as to establish the relationship between financial allocation, actual expenditures, and eventual outcomes of that expenditure.


• The TISS won the inaugural round of the Obama-Singh 21st Century award for research on leadership development in higher education.


• Along with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, the TISS established the Himalayan Universities Consortium of 25 universities from the sub-continent, Afghanistan and China for teaching and research on mountain development and climate change.


• The TISS has established collaborative research and student exchange programmes with over 25 universities and consortiums in Africa, Asia, the United States and Europe.


• The TISS has become a partner in a Consortium of 12 European Universities and 8 Indian Universities. This Consortium is led by Lund University, Sweden, and has received a grant of 9.6 million Euros for academic exchange under the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window India Lot 15. Under the Grant, TISS faculty members and students will receive fellowships for teaching and research work in various universities across Europe, and TISS will receive scholars and students from European Universities.


• At the request of the Mumbai High Court, in 2005, the TISS Tuljapur Campus studied suicides in Maharashtra. The Report has been appreciated by the Court, both for providing valuable insights into the rural livelihood crises and its policy recommendations. A long-term action research project on agrarian crisis has been initiated. Farmers


• The TISS continues to be involved in critical research in diverse areas such as education and literacy, family and children, s issues, HIV/AIDS, rural and urban development issues, displacement, youth and human development, and the rights of Dalits, indigenous peoples, minorities and other marginalized groups. Women

Resource Centers

The computer center performs a wide range of functions like Network Management, Server Management, Software development, technical support/ Training to staff, faculty and students, System Maintenance. The Institute has an in-house data center which hosts all its servers. All critical software applications are developed, hosted and maintained in-house. The computer center extensively promotes the use of free and open-source software.

The Sir Dorabji Tata Memorial Library (SDTML) continues to be proactive in supporting new academic developments at the institute. Its resources and services are aimed at providing the highest level of research and teaching support to all the programmes of the Institute. The s collection is reviewed every year in order for it to be relevant to the emerging and developing areas of research. It holds about 1,20,000 volumes and subscribes to over 8,500 print and e-journals.

The Publications Unit was established with the aim of knowledge development and dissemination in the field of social work and social development. It has published over 100 books and monographs. The Publications Unit has been publishing The Indian Journal of Social Work (IJSW) uninterruptedly since 1940. The IJSW, a quarterly, focuses on multi-disciplinary knowledge development relevant to the changing perspective of the social work profession, with special reference to issues of the marginalized groups and interventions for them.

The Office for International Affairs (OIA) was established in the year 2006 as International Students' Office (ISO) to facilitate mutually beneficial international academic exchange and collaboration between TISS and foreign Universities /Institutions. TISS has signed MoUs with some of the best institutions around the world and established links with Universities and Institutions in Asia, Europe and North America. IRO plays an important role in liaising with various internal departments to facilitate the exchange of students/ faculty/ staff members between TISS and outside Universities, or students/ individuals/ researchers seeking admission/ affiliation at the Institute.

Current Projects

Saksham Pravaah – A Global Fund supported Psychosocial counseling intervention for DR TB patients in 4 Indian states (Sub-recipient of Central TB Division, MoH & FW)

Saksham Jan Urja – A Tata Power supported community intervention project for TB prevention and control in M Ward

Previous Projects

January 2012. Understanding the increase in HIV prevalence among FSWs between two rounds of IBBA in Mumbai & Thane: An in-depth exploration. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Completed (with LSHTM, London and others)

September 2012. Access and Utilization of Services for Prevention and Management of Infertility in the Public Health Care Delivery System in India: A multisite study. Co-PI with National Institute of Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai and others. Funded by UNFPA. Completed.

August 2011. HIV Related Stigma Research in India: A Research Compendium. UNDP. Completed

August 2010. Impact assessment of HIV prevention response in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With LSHTM, London & NARI, India. Completed.

July 2010. Knowledge Network Project for HIV Prevention Programmatic Learnings. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (With Population Council, New Delhi).

2009. Community and the health providers’ perspectives on male controlled biological option in India (with focus on male circumcision in the context of HIC prevention): An ICMR task force study. (WITH NARI, India-Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi). Completed.

2009 AIDS stigma, gender and health consequences in India. National Institutes of Health (NIH), US (A collaborative project with University of California at San Francisco, US and National Institute of Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India).

2009 Demographic transition among the Parsi community of India: A study of the familial, marital and socio-psychological dimensions Part II: A Quantitative study. UNESCO/ PARZOR (Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust).

2008 Migration, mobility and HIV: Assessing the patterns and drivers of migration/ mobility of male migrants and examining the links with HIV risk. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Population Council, New Delhi (in collaboration with other TISS faculty)

2007 Demographic transition among the Parsi community of India: A study of the familial, marital and socio-psychological dimensions Part I: A qualitative study. UNESCO/ PARZOR (Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust).

Courses

Location