The first lectures in Communication Studies in Salzburg were held by visiting professors from Munich and Vienna from 1965 onwards. In 1967, former “Salzburger Nachrichten” (Salzburg’s regional daily newspaper) Editor-in-Chief and University Professor René Marcic arranged the first University Chair. The Department was officially established two years later, on January 15th’ 1969, as “Institute of Journalism and Communication Theory”. T he Institute found the second location for journalism studies in Austria after the University of Vienna. The first full professor of the institute was Günter Kieslich, who was followed by Michael Schmolke in 1973. In 1978, the Institute was rebranded as “Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies” at the newly established Faculty of Humanities at the University of Salzburg. The study program soon attracted many students, and the number of active students rose from 100 in 1969 to around 900 at present.

From 1999 on, the department had the title “Institute of Communication Studies” with the coming into force of the new University Law in January 2004, the Institute became the Department of Communication Studies.

Today, around 150 graduates complete their studies successfully each year.