PhD in social sciences in Mumbai

Deonar, Goregaon, Kalina or Powai: which Mumbai campus fits your discipline?

Start from your subject rather than the institution’s name, because each campus is strong in a narrow band.

A rough guide from the programme lists: social work, urban and housing research, gender, disasters and labour point to TISS; fertility, mortality, migration and health surveys point to IIPS; quantitative economics and energy policy point to IGIDR. The University of Mumbai and SNDT suit scholars who want a department close to home and a PET route rather than NET.

IIT Bombay sits a little apart. Its Humanities and Social Sciences department asks for a master’s in the humanities or social sciences with 55% (50% for SC/ST), plus a statement of purpose and a research proposal. The 2026–27 brochure opened psychology, sociology and English literature only for the autumn 2026 intake, while philosophy, history and linguistics took applicants in both semesters. The separate Economics department asks for 55% in an M.A. in economics, and its Teaching Assistantship needs a GATE score or a CSIR, UGC, ICSSR or ICPR qualification. Management and labour research at TISS is compared with the business schools on our PhD in management in Mumbai page.

How does TISS choose PhD scholars now that everything runs on UGC-NET?

By NET marks first. Every programme page in the TISS PhD list takes applicants in the three UGC-NET categories only: a JRF not older than three years, or a NET result for PhD admission (with or without assistant professorship) not older than one year. TISS then calls five applicants for each seat to an online interview, choosing them by NET marks and the Government of India reservation rules. JRF holders are judged on the interview alone. Everyone else gets a composite score, seven parts NET to three parts interview. You also upload a concept note (2,000 words minimum), which the interview mostly discusses.

The Mumbai campus listed these PhD intakes: Social Work 20, Habitat Studies 14, Development Studies 10, Management and Labour Studies 10, Women’s Studies (at the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies) 6, and Disaster Studies 3. Themes are specific. Habitat Studies names urban informality, affordable housing, coastal management and climate adaptation; Social Work names displacement and rehabilitation, informal labour and tribal areas; Development Studies names inequality, fiscal federalism and financing of education and health.

The 2025–26 round moved fast: applications closed on 5 January 2026, interviews ran from 16 to 23 January, and coursework classes started on 10 February. A TISS PhD is full-time, and scholars sign a daily attendance register in the Doctoral Students’ Office; one who later takes a job may ask for conversion to part-time mode. The 2025–26 first-year fee on the Mumbai campus came to ₹66,500 for general-category scholars, of which ₹10,000 was a refundable caution deposit.

What does IIPS ask of a population-studies PhD applicant?

A recent NET and youth. The International Institute for Population Sciences, a deemed university since 1985 under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, asks for UGC or CSIR NET cleared in 2024 or later in population studies, anthropology, economics, geography, psychology, political science, social work, sociology, mathematics, statistics, or social medicine and community health. Its 2025–26 admission bulletin says plainly that someone who cleared only NET before 2024 cannot apply, and it set the age limit at 30 as on 30 June 2025, relaxed for reserved categories.

The number of full-time seats equals the Government of India fellowships vacant on the date of the advertisement. Selection follows the same logic as at neighbouring TISS: JRF holders by interview only, others 70% NET score and 30% interview. Every admitted scholar does eight months of pre-PhD coursework.

The fellowship is the draw. It pays ₹37,000 monthly for the first two years and ₹42,000 for the third and fourth, with a contingency grant of ₹10,000 a year for the first two years and ₹20,500 for the third and fourth. (The bulletin’s general notes mention the ₹20,500 only for the third year; the programme section says third and fourth.) The PhD itself may run from three to six years, and the bulletin notes that this duration is for thesis submission, not for the fellowship.

IIPS also keeps two part-time seats without fellowship, open to people with at least five years of work experience after their highest degree, with the same NET condition, an employer’s NOC and no age limit. Other part-time options in the city are compared in our guide to part-time PhDs in Mumbai.

Why does IGIDR insist on a JRF or GATE score and school mathematics?

Because the programme is built around economics taught with mathematics, and IGIDR pays every scholar a stipend of its own. The institute was set up by the Reserve Bank of India in 1987 and is a deemed university. Its 2026–27 PhD prospectus requires a valid UGC-JRF, CSIR-JRF or GATE score on the last date of application, and mathematics at the higher secondary level (NIOS mathematics, or mathematics inside an eligible bachelor’s degree, also counts). A master’s in economics, statistics, operations research, development studies, physics, mathematics or management needs 55% for Development Studies; four-year BA, BSc, BStat, BE or BTech graduates need 60%. The 2026–27 intake was nine seats in Economics, two in Development Studies and four in Energy, Environment and Climate Change, with the application link opening on 13 April 2026 and shortlisted candidates interviewed on campus.

Expect two years of classes before registration: 64 credits of core and elective courses in Economics or Development Studies (70 in the energy programme), and you must also pass a proposal evaluation and a qualifying examination. The money is set out in the prospectus:

• a stipend of ₹37,000 a month in the first year, ₹42,000 from the second year until PhD registration, and ₹47,000 after registration in the third year, with part-time teaching or research assistance expected from the second year;
• conference funding and support for up to six months at a university abroad, under institute rules;
• against that, tuition of ₹27,040 a semester, a ₹20,000 security deposit, a group medical insurance premium, and a hostel fee of 8% of the monthly stipend plus water and electricity.

If you hold a JRF in economics and are comfortable with the mathematics, apply: IGIDR’s stipend is as high as any on this page, and it comes with the seat rather than depending on your own fellowship. With only two Development Studies seats, though, apply to TISS or the University of Mumbai as well.

How do University of Mumbai departments and SNDT admit social scientists?

Department by department, through short notices. Under the university’s January 2026 PhD regulations, each research centre advertises its vacancies, takes applications for about ten days, and interviews candidates before a Departmental Research Committee, no more than twice a year. Seats for candidates exempt from the entrance test (NET, SET, M.Phil. and similar) may not exceed 40% (R.PhD.6). If your master’s is in another subject, the centre first gives you an aptitude test (R.PhD.7(8)).

Two recent notices show how this works in practice. The Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy (2025–26 winter notification, dated 2 April 2026) took online applications from 2 to 11 April for a PhD in economics, from candidates with PET, NET, SET or GATE in economics, public policy, development studies or statistics, or an M.Phil., each with a two-page write-up of research interests. The Department of Civics and Politics took applications from 26 September to 8 October 2025 and interviewed on 13 October; candidates from other disciplines had to pass its faculty-change examination first. A Humanities PhD at the university costs ₹23,091 under the 2026–27 fee circular (₹800 of it refundable), and the end of the process is covered by our guide to the Mumbai University thesis rules.

SNDT Women’s University admits women only, to departments on its Churchgate and Juhu campuses and at recognised centres. Its 2025 entrance test, held online on 3 July 2025, had two 50-mark papers, research methodology and the subject, with 50% needed in each (45% for reserved categories), followed by an interview with the same pass mark. NET, SET, JRF and M.Phil. holders skip the test but not the interview.

Neither university promises funding with admission. Scholars from the communities served by BARTI, SARTHI, MAHAJYOTI or TRTI should read our Maharashtra fellowships guide as soon as they are admitted.