The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), established in 1936, is a Deemed University under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956 and operates as a grant-in-aid Institute under the Ministry of Education, Government of India. TISS holds a Grade I University status as per its NAAC assessment in 2024. With four campuses across Mumbai (main campus), Hyderabad, Guwahati, and Tuljapur, TISS offers a wide array of academic programs including 05 undergraduate, 52 Master's, and 21 Ph.D. programs, focusing on socially relevant inter-disciplinary areas of applied Social Sciences.
The School of Development Studies (SDS) at TISS-Mumbai Campus was established in 2012. It aims for excellence in development research and knowledge advancement, organizing teaching and research on development issues from a multi-disciplinary perspective. SDS offers postgraduate and doctoral research programmes in Development Studies and Women's Studies, including MA programs introduced in 2006 and 2009 respectively, fostering professional expertise in critical and interdisciplinary approaches to development processes and gender analysis.