The Hyderabad campus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences or TISS Hyderabad has shut its gates for an indefinite period. The administrators have suspended academic activities and asked the students to vacate the campus by Monday 5 pm. To check further updates, visit the official website of TISS, https://www.tiss.edu/

The reason behind this step is an ongoing protest by the students due to the increased fees for the hostel and mess. Students have been going on hunger strikes in protest of this. The Acting Deputy Director of TISS Hyderabad has said, “The students have been denying us entry from the past one week. We had a meeting with them and said that we can’t have talks in this kind of an atmosphere. So, our Mumbai administration has suspended academic activity indefinitely.”

He went on to add that the campus will remain closed indefinitely and will reopen only when the condition returns to normal.

Recently, the TISS Hyderabad campus has changed its place – moving to Turkayamajal from Rajendranagar. Along with that, there has been a change in the fee structure as well. Now, students need to pay hostel and mess fees for a semester on its entirety up front. This applies even to students coming from reserved categories who depend upon financial aidings. In response to this decision, students have demanded the Government of India – Post Matric Scholarship or GoI PMS. Students could pay their fees in instalments in the fee structure that was in place up until now.

Another complaint that students have raised is the girls’ hostel is at an unsafe location, resulting in many girls facing harassment on the street.