Ph.D. education started at our University in animal breeding sciences in September 1994. within the branch of agricultural sciences with the programme „environment friendly animal keeping based on local sources”.
- The head of the programme was Professor Dr. László Veress, D.Sc. (1994-1998) later on Professor Dr. Tamás Bánszky, D.Sc. (1999 - 2005).
- Since January 2001 it was working as Doctoral School of Animal Breeding with provisional accreditation getting the permanent accreditation from January 2002.
- The head of the Doctoral School was Professor Dr. András Kovács, D.Sc. (2005-2016), followed by Professor Dr. István Komlósi, D.Sc. (2016 -).
The basic philosophy of the Doctoral School from the beginnings is: Improving the modern animal breeding and animal science based on the classic knowledge with the application of the newest results of joint sciences (molecular genetics, molecular biology, immunology, molecular nutrition, informatics etc.) for producing excellent quality and safe food economically. It is also important to decrease the ecological footprint.
The PhD students of the Doctoral School of Animal Science do their research work in fields which are of great interest to agronomists working at agricultural firms and enterprises of the Great Hungarian Plain. R&D work is an essential task of the doctoral school, because the animal husbandry sector is one of the most important sector in the Great Plain region, and has long-established traditions, serving the preservation of traditional breeds.
Recently, research in the Doctoral School has been carried out within the framework of several programmes, like: "Environmentally-friendly animal keeping based on regional resources". In this period, research was focused on the questions of sheep breeding and feeding. The other major fields were research on fishery including fish breeding, and fresh water fishery. Additionally, the questions of animal keeping on pasture were also an important part of research at the Doctoral School, such as the relationship between the animal and the grassland and some problems of grass production and grassland management.
Presently, the broadening of the Doctoral School's activities is in progress. The Doctoral School provides the possibility for research and doctoral work in the area of cattle and horse breeding, poultry keeping, game management, genetics and breeding.