Mumbai: TISS Reinstates Over 115 Staff Sacked Due To Lack Of Funds

Two days after dismissing the contractual services of 55 faculty members and 60 non-teaching staff over lack of funds, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has reinstated them. Issuing a statement on Sunday, the registrar of the prestigious deemed-to-be university said that the termination letters were withdrawn after the Tata Education Trust (TET) assured releasing the salary funds for these staffers.

“Ongoing discussions with the TET have provided assurance that resources will be made available to the TISS to resolve this issue. The trust has committed to releasing funds for the salaries of TET project/programme faculty and non-teaching staff,” read the statement.

On Friday, the institute said that it was compelled to take this drastic decision as TET, which had been funding the academic programmes linked to teachers and staffers, had stopped providing resources to pay their salaries. The terminated staff was spread across four campuses in Mumbai, Guwahati, Tuljapur and Hyderabad. Some of these employees have been working at the premier institute for over a decade.

The move came after the Centre last year took in its hands the control of the humanities institute from Tata Trust. The government had changed the University Grants Commission regulations to bring in its purview those deemed-to-be universities that were being given more than 50% funding.

As per the new rules, the Union education minister holds the position of chairman of TISS society, which facilitates the running of the deemed university. Until now, the post was held by the representatives of Tata Trusts. The number of Trust representatives in the institute's executive council, which was earlier known as the governing body, has been reduced from two to one.

The unprecedented sacking had drawn sharp reactions from the TISS' student and teaching communities. In a statement, the Progressive Student Forum said, “As students, we express our concern about this decision. Previous years' National Institutional Ranking Framework data shows that the student-faculty ratio is being impacted negatively.” This means that the existing faculty is insufficient in terms of the number of students admitted to TISS each year. While the termination of a hundred such positions will directly impact the futures of the students, it might also allow for politically motivated appointments in the near future, the Forum added.