The Department of Communication Sciences (DCC), pioneer in Portugal, is the most sought-after department in its area at the national level, consistently, being the last student placed entry grade the highest among all similar degrees of public higher education.

Initially named as Department of Social Communication, it promoted the first degree in Social Communication in Portugal in 1979, one year after the foundation of the College of Social and Human Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon.

Throughout the 1980s, when the first finalists graduated, the Department established itself as an important reference, both nationally and internationally. It also started its first master’s degree in Communication Sciences in 1984. That same year, the first research unit in this area was established in Portugal: the Centre for Communication and Language Studies, currently integrated in ICNOVA, which since 1985 publishes one of the oldest academic communication journals in Europe – the Journal of Communication and Languages.

In the early 1990s, the Department, already as the Department of Communication Sciences, saw the first phase of its history consolidated with the first doctorates to be finalized, namely by the first trainee assistants. In this decade, the Department expanded its scientific area in the field of research with direct cooperation with two other research units: IFILNOVA – Nova Institute of Philosophy, created in 1993, and CIMJ – Center for Media and Journalism Research, created in 1997, now also integrated in ICNOVA.

Students from several generations of the Department of Communication Sciences are found in prominent places in the media in Portugal or in other areas of Portuguese society.