Institute says despite reminders to UGC, the contracts of professors were not renewed
Twenty five faculty members at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) are facing termination of contracts after March 31 as the Institute issued them letters to this effect on Friday. Officials said that these teachers, who were hired as a part of University Grants Commission’s (UGC) five-year-plan, could not be retained as the government failed to renew their contracts despite several requests. With this termination, centres at TISS are also at the risk of closing down if the UGC does not extend the schemes further.
Faculty members from several prominent centres like Advance Centre for Women’s Studies, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies, Centre of Excellence for Human Rights Education and the School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance were sent letters of termination on Friday, signed by the institute registrar CP Mohankumar.
“Some of us have been raising our concerns about the existing issues in the Institute from abrupt termination of teachers’ contracts to a clamp down on dissent in campus. Some faculty members whose contracts have been terminated were planning to form a teachers’ association in the campus,” said one of the terminated faculty members on the condition of anonymity.
Prof S Parasuraman, Director at the institute, cited non-renewal of the contracts from the UGC as the reason for the termination. “It is extremely sad and unfortunate that we have to lose several good faculty members who were contributing to academics and research in a huge way. In the last few months, TISS has been appealing the UGC authorities to extend these contracts but when that could not happen, we had no option but to send them letters. The institute is facing a deficit of Rs 5.11 crore as far as paying for the salaries of these teachers is concerned. We can no longer afford to continue their services when the government is not giving an extension and funds.”
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