About the Department: Studying in the Mass Communication Department programs started in the academic year of 1987 / 1988 at Sultan Qaboos University. The first batch of students graduated in 1991, and since then onwards, the department provides the local and regional markets with qualified graduates who end up working in several press and media institutions inside and outside the Sultanate. At the beginning of the academic year 2004 / 2005, the department started implementing its new study plan based on the development of academic programs to keep pace with the rapid developments in communication and its technologies. The specialization started after the end of the second year when students should choose one of the three disciplines involved (the press and electronic publishing, radio and television, or public relations and advertising). Besides, the plan took into account the development of language skills through intensive teaching of Arabic and English, whereby students are required to have past level 4 of English prior to joining the Department of Mass Communication. The new plan adopted the development of training programs, as well as the cooperation with media institutions in the Sultanate and abroad. The university has provided the mass communication department with many technical and educational logistics within the university and outside. Since 1993 the department has been provided with radio studios (voice and visual). In addition, the university had established a specialized press lab equipped with modern computers (Apple Mac & PCs), coupled with necessary varied programs and educational aids. Furthermore, the department has upgraded its infrastructure by transferring its studios into digital ones including the constant modernization of the press equipment. At the practical training level, the department students established, in collaboration with the Department of Information and Public Relations in the University public relations information unit, a weekly newsletter that appears in Al-Watan newspaper concerned with university news and issues since 1995, entitled, “Rehab Elgamah in the university auspices”. In January 2001, the experiment has evolved into a weekly appendix entitled «Anwaar. In addition, students participate in media coverage of events and activities at the university, and the coverage of Muscat Festival and Khareef Salalah Tourism Festival each year. The students entered a new experience in cooperation with Oman Mobile, where they participated in the planning, preparation and implementation of an integrated public relations campaign implemented in Muscat. The students have established in coordination with the academic staff, and with the cooperation of the Department of Public Relations and Information, the idea of the Annual Media creativity forum, which provides students’ creative collections through a presentation of scientific output and models applied in the fields of journalism and electronic publishing, radio and television, public relations and advertising during the three days of the Forum. The Forum invite an annual media personnel, in addition to inviting students from mass communication departments in the Arab Gulf Cooperation states (AGCC) through a seminar where students present their experiments in those departments.