In the course of its history, the Faculty of Da'wah and Communication Sciences began with the establishment of the Religious Science Service Academy (ADIA) on June 1, 1957. ADIA has three departments, Religious Education, Arabic Language, and Da'wah wal Ershad. When there was a merger of ADIA in Jakarta and PTAIN (State Islamic Religious College) in Yogyakarta to become IAIN (State Islamic Religious Institute) AlJami'ah, special departments were included in the Faculty of Tarbiyah (Education). However, the existence of a special department at the Tarbiyah Faculty did not last long, because in 1961 the Jakarta branch of IAIN opened the Ushuluddin (Religious Science) Faculty based on the Decree of the Minister of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia No. 66 of 1962 dated 5 November 1962. This faculty was officially opened with only one department, namely the Da'wah (Preaching) department. The Da'wah Department at the Ushuluddin Faculty was the forerunner of the Faculty of Da'wah and Communication Sciences that exist today.

When the Da'wah Faculty was first opened, it only had one department, namely the Department of Religious Information Broadcasting (PPA). A year later in 1992-1993, the Faculty of Da'wah opened the Department of Community Guidance and Counseling (BPM). In 1994-1995 the name of this department changed on the Department of Religious Guidance and Counseling (BPA), then in the 1996-1997 academic year there was a change of name to the PPA and BPA departments, the PPA Department was changed to the Department of Islamic Communication and Broadcasting; while the BPA Study Programme was changed to Guidance and Islamic Extention.

In the 1997-1998 academic year, the Faculty of Da'wah reopened one department, namely Da’wah Management (MD). After a year, the Faculty of Da'wah and Communication Studies opened another department, namely the Department of Islamic Community Development (PMI). And in the same year the Faculty of Da'wah opened a Non-Regular Programme (Extension Programme) with the excuse of facilitating prospective students who for various reasons cannot attend lectures in the morning.

The legality of the department (study programme) at the Da'wah Faculty is the Decree of the Directorate General of Islamic Religious Institutional Development (Now Director General of Islamic Education) No. E/48/1999 dated 25 February 1999. Thus, the Faculty of Da'wah consists of four departments, namely KPI, BPI, MD, and PMI. With the reason that there is an increasing demand for Muslim scholars who have the ability to deal with social problems such as poverty, drugs, ethnic conflict, religion etc. So the Faculty of Dakwah and Communication in the 2003-2004 academic year opened a Social Welfare Concentration (Kessos) which is under the PMI Department. The opening of the Social Welfare Concentration received support from the IAIN Indonesia Social Equity Project” (IISEP). This project is a collaboration between several institutions, namely IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, IAIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Ministry of Religion (MoRA), Canadian Development Agency (CIDA), and McGill University, Canada. In 2004-2005, in line with the increasing interest of prospective students in the KPI Department, especially in the field of Communication and Mass Media, the Faculty of Dakwah and Communication opened a Journalism Concentration under the KPI Department. With the reason to produce Muslim journalists who serve the Islamic mass media which are many in number. And in 2002, the President of the Republic of Indonesia issued Presidential Decree No. 31 of 2002 dated 20 May 2002 concerning Changes from IAIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta to UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. This change had an impact on the names of other faculties which eventually changed to a new name.

Since the founding of the Faculty of Da'wah and Communication Sciences, there have been changes in leadership (deans), as follows: Prof. Dr. HR Husnul Aqib Suminto (1990-1993), Prof. Dr. H. Muh. Ardani (1994-1996 and 1996-1997), Prof. Dr. HM Yunan Yusuf (1997-2000 and 2000-2005), and Dr. H. Murodi, MA (2005-2009), Dr. H. Arief Subhan, MA (2009-2017), Suparto, M. Ed., Ph. D. (2017 - 2023), and currently led by Dr. Gun Gun Heryanto, M.Si. (2023 - 2027).