Manipal Institute of Communication has its supremacy in traditional and new media, digital and non-digital media. University also offers specialised courses of interpersonal and business communications, video and audio content production, branding and advertising, product and graphic designing, film making, photography, blogging, digital marketing, news reporting, scriptwriting, editing, development communications, investigative and data journalism, social communications among other journalism, media and communications fields. Dr Padma Rani is currently Director and Professor at the university.

It is a global university and has collaborations with many foreign universities of Australia, Germany, France, etc. It has been ranked as the top media school by Outlook and India Today magazine.