Since 2013, Sussex has been involved in a doctoral exchange programme with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. At TISS, the exchange has been led by Prof Ashwani Kumar at the School of Development Studies, and by Prof Nandini Manjrekar at the School of Social Sciences. TISS is a leading social science institute in India that offers both masters courses and doctoral training across a range of disciplines. At Sussex, Dr Geert De Neve from Global Studies and Prof Mairead Dunne from Education and Social Work have been leading on this partnership, with invaluable support from the Doctoral School. This ESRC-DTC funded initiative consists of an exchange of doctoral students and their supervisors. So far, three doctoral students from the School of Global Studies have visited TISS for a month’s period and one doctoral student and Prof Ashwani Kumar visited our School in return. In Education and Social Work, Prof Dunne and two students visited TISS, while Prof Manjrekar visited ESW along with two doctoral students from TISS.

The purpose of this exchange is to enable doctoral students to present their work to novel audiences, receive feedback during the writing of their theses, and to expand their research networks across the two institutions. The partnership also seeks to explore opportunities for further research collaboration between post-doctoral researchers and faculty in future. To date, all participating students and faculty have greatly enjoyed their visit to the partner institution and have found it a productive experience.