Earlier, each school at TISS elected one representative, regardless of how many programmes it ran.
For instance, all undergraduate and postgraduate students of the School of Social Work together elected a single representative, while PhD students elected one representative of their own.
In a second phase, all students voted to elect a seven-member executive body — president, vice-president, general secretary, treasurer, and cultural, literary and sports secretaries. The president and general secretary represented students on key institutional bodies such as the Academic Council and the Disciplinary Committee.
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Under the new Students’ Council model, elections are decentralised. Each class in every programme will now elect one representative, significantly increasing the number of elected students on campus to around 80.
In addition, two PhD scholars will be nominated by the Dean of the Doctoral Students Office.
These elected and nominated representatives will then be grouped into different committees by the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) — such as finance, cultural, literary and sports — which will also have the power to add non-elected students to committees if it feels representation is inadequate.
Each committee will have a coordinator, and all coordinators together will form a core group that liaises with the OSA. The OSA will also nominate student representatives to institution-level bodies such as the Gender Development Cell and the Equal Opportunity Cell.
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Together, the changes mark a shift in how student representation functions at TISS. While the new framework expands the number of elected student representatives by moving to a class-level election system, it also removes the elected executive body that earlier spoke for students on key decision-making forums.
With committee assignments and nominations now controlled by the OSA, students say the model redistributes power away from elected representatives and towards the administration, altering the balance between participation and representation on campus.
What prompted the institute administration to revise the framework?
After the Students’ Union dissolved in 2024, student-body elections at TISS were put on hold as the institute began revising the election framework. The administration says the changes are aimed at improving student welfare by expanding participation in campus governance.
According to the administration, the earlier model limited leadership roles to a small group of office-bearers, while the new Students’ Council structure allows more students to take on responsibilities beyond academics.
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“It provides room for students to gain a larger perspective by engaging in responsibilities beyond academics, which was limited to only a few students in the older model. The Students Council on the other hand will provide this opportunity to a larger number of students. We have so many talented individuals joining as students, if channelised well each of them can have a bright future,” said an official, adding that having separate committees for areas such as sports and literary activities would enable more focused engagement.
What is the criticism by students?
Students argue that the revised framework dilutes the representative powers of the earlier Students’ Union, particularly in institutional decision-making.
“The President and General Secretary of the Student Union would represent students on bodies such as the academic council where student-centric topics such as fee-structure, curriculum etc were being discussed. Additionally, they would also be part of all the disciplinary committees to ensure that students are given a fair chance of trial. The revised Students Council Constitute does not include this, making us wonder if student representatives are only to conduct cultural and literary activities on campus,” said a student.
They have also criticised the decentralised election process, saying it removes their ability to directly elect key office-bearers. Under the new system, students will vote only for class representatives, without clarity on their eventual roles, as committee assignments will be decided by the OSA.
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The expanded role of the OSA is another major concern. “Not only do OSA place members on various committees, it will also have powers to bring in non-elected members on a committee where it feels that adequate representation is lacking,” said a student.
Students have also pointed out that PhD representatives will now be nominated rather than elected.
How has the institute administration responded to the criticism?
Although the election program for this year is already announced with voting to be held on February 6, the institute administration has stated that the revised framework is yet open for suggestions.
“The revised framework was finalised following consultation with students and faculty members. Yet it is again declared open for suggestion after knowing that students have certain apprehensions. Their suggestion will be taken into consideration,” said an official.
