mumbai the tata institute of social sciences tiss is looking at expansion in regions such as south asia subsaharan africa and countries under the gulf cooperation council gcc while the institution is currently in talks with governments to run different programmes in collaboration with universities there in the long run they are also exploring options of satellite campuses abroad in fact governments of gcc countries have already shown keen interest in tiss presence on their soilmany of the plans are being explored in line with the new education policy nep 2020 mentioned by the university authorities during the launch of the new age nepcompliant skill education and innovative teaching education programme on wednesday the universitys vicechancellor shalini bharat said that they are looking to globalise their programmes we are currently exploring options of forging alliances with universities in the us and europe we already are running dual degree programmes with australias monash and londons queen mary universities we will be reaching out to the indian diaspora in south asia gcc countries and subsaharan africa the vicechancellor was speaking about the institutes expansion plan postnep provicechancellor bino paul said the plan to have a tiss campus in some gcc countries is at a very nascent stage the immediate plan is to forge academic collaborations with institutions there and explore the possibilities of having joint programmes one of our team is also currently in talks with the bhutan government for collaborationsin line with ne the institute has identified 17 sustainable development goals and programmes are being worked out around them this year the institute launched a bs programme in analytics and sustainability at the mumbai campus which saw over 22000 applications for 30 seats an undergraduate degree in their flagship social work programme bsw also saw many aspirants this year in the mumbai campus in the coming year tiss is also planning to offer a multidisciplinary programme in art and management which will include components such as art literature culture behavioural sciences film studies etc unlike other fouryear undergraduate programmes under nep tiss will also be making a rural internship component mandatory