Director's Message to Alumni

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) was established in 1936, as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work. The first school of social work in India, TISS was a pioneering effort with the objective of social welfare through academic excellence. In 1944, the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work was renamed as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Since then, TISS has been expanding continuously in terms of educational programmes and infrastructure. While responding to the changing needs of the social and educational system in the country, the institute has gone far beyond the initial concern of social work education. Thus, what started as a small institution offering a postgraduate diploma in Social Work, grew into a Deemed University and, as a result, diversified its activities.

Since its inception, TISS has never limited itself to the mandate of a conventional university; rather, it has worked for the promotion of sustainable, equitable and participatory development, social welfare and social justice through:

• Value-based professional education for social work and other human service professions;

• Social research and dissemination of socially relevant knowledge;

• Policy and programme intervention through training and field action projects;

• Evidence based contribution to development and social welfare policies and programmes at state, national and international levels; and

• Professional response to national calamities, through relief, rehabilitation and disaster management.

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