TISS asks waitlisted PG students to 'pay twice'; PSF says 'education isn’t just for the rich'

Progressive Students’ Forum strongly condemned the “exploitative and exclusionary” manner in which the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has handled the PG admission 2025 and fee payment process for waitlisted students.

According to the PSF, the administration had earlier assured, through calls and mails, that the fee would be adjusted automatically in case a student moved from one course to another through the waitlist process. However, the institute, in a notice issued on July 12, instructed waitlisted candidates to pay the full semester 1 fees by July 16 through the Samarth portal. The total semester 1 fee is Rs 38,000.

Students who have been admitted to one programme while being waitlisted for another preferred course are now facing an unreasonable and unjust financial burden, the forum said.

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'No clarity' on TISS admission, payment process

“There is no official communication explaining the procedure for course change or fee adjustment. Multiple emails from aspirants have gone unanswered. The helpline is dysfunctional, and there is a complete lack of transparency. The admission process has become a site of confusion, uncertainty and stress, with no responsibility being taken by the administration,” the student group said.

Criticising the "unjust" admission process, the students said that the current fee structure and its mismanagement reflect “a mindset that only those who can afford to pay can access quality education”.

“This goes against the very values on which TISS was founded. Marginalised students, including those from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and those eligible for the Government of India Post-Matric Scholarship, are being forced to pay the entire fee twice without any guarantee of a timely refund or adjustment,” it said.

Condemning the TISS administration for “turning its back on the poor and marginalised students”, the Executive Body of PSF said: “TISS must stop functioning like a private corporate institute and remember that it was built to serve the marginalised, not to exclude them. Progressive Students’ Forum reiterates that education is a right, not a privilege for those who can afford.”