Following the last restructuring and merger of various units of Addis Ababa University that took place over a year and a half ago, the College came to take its present shape and nomenclature in April 2012. It was formed by bringing together three former faculties: Faculty of Humanities, with the exception of the Department of Philosophy which was reinstated in the new College of Social Sciences, Faculty of Language Studies and Faculty of Journalism and Communication.

In its present status, the College has five Departments and one School functioning under it. These are:

1. Department of Amharic Language, Literature and Folklore
2. Department of Oromo Language, Literature and Folklore
3. Department of Tigrigna Language, Literature and Folklore
4. Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (English, Arabic Unit Programme, French Unit Programme, Chinese Programme Unit, and Modern European Languages Programme Unit)
5. Department of Linguistics
6. School of Journalism and Communication

The College currently has a total 295 staff of which 190 are academic and the rest 105 in the administrative category. In terms of rank, 56 of the academic staff are assistant professors and above whereas 101 are lecturers. The remaining hold the ranks of assistant lecturer and below.

In its regular and extension/evening programs, the College now hosts 12 undergraduate, 11 postgraduate (Master’s) , and 12 PhD programs. There are no PhD programs in the extension division. A total of 2002 students, 659 females and 1343 males, pursue their studies in the College.

The College has three libraries at the moment, one in the former Institute of Language Studies (ILS) building and two in the School of Journalism. Whereas Mandela Building on the Main Campus houses a library for postgraduate students in the School of Journalism and Communication, the Abune Petros Campus accommodates another library that serves the undergraduate students of the School. The School also has specialized laboratories established for specific purposes related to media communication. Another laboratory in the College is one used for teaching language, particularly the English Language and this is located on the fourth floor of what is traditionally referred to as the Old Classrooms (OCR) building – ILS Building.

The College renders community services in different areas but the major ones are in the sectors of journalism and communication, language teaching (both foreign and local) and linguistics. The School of Journalism and Communication offers diverse training in its areas while the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature teaches foreign languages like English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Persian to members of the community both in and outside the University. Departments that teach local languages also have customers who want to learn such languages. The Department of Linguistics offers services to members of the community who are visually and aurally impaired.

The main office of the College of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communication is located on the third floor of the College of Social Sciences Building (Rm. 326/27) on the Main Campus of the University.

The College has collaborations and working relationships with various institutions. Such institutions include DAAD, Kentalis International Foundation, Confucius Institute, Korean Foundation and many more.

Different units of the College have their own seminars and conferences at department or school level. However, what used to be called the ILS Annual Seminar and interrupted for a couple of years for some reason, is making the necessary preparations to resume as of this academic year.