The Hungarian university level studies in Cluj has a great past but without being assured an institutional continuity on academic level. Since 1872 there have been four startings and resumptions because of historical reasons, and we could also name a fifth one after the end of the communist regime in 1990. The academic continuity of the Babeş-Bolyai University has been lasting since 1959. The first period could be considered as the time of disorganization and downsizing, but the second one was the time of establishing from the perspective of Hungarology.

The professors and scholars of a great generation were working at the departments in the first part of the decades between 1959 and 1990 – almost every of them started their careers in the 40’s. Great casualties were coming after that period – Elemér Jancsó, Gyula Márton, József Szigeti and Attila Szabó T. passed away.

Some important branches of the Hungarian Linguistic School of Cluj invigorated in this context: Historical Linguistics and Onomastics (Attila Szabó T. and his students), Dialectology and Linguistic Contactology (Gyula Márton and his students), History of Literary Language and Stylistics (Zoltán Szabó and his students).

The main research fields in literature were: Old (Transylvanian) Literature (Elemér Jancsó, József Szigeti), Classical Hungarian Literature and Transylvanian Literature of the 20th century (Árpád Antal, Dezső Kozma, Éva Cs. Gyimesi).

It was possible to obtain a PhD degree in Folklore but a PhD in Ethnography was possible to obtain only with researches related to Ethnolinguistics, a frontier field connected to Dialectology. The PhD supervisors of these fields were József Szigeti and Árpád Antal. János Péntek was a PhD supervisor in researches related Dialectology and Ethnography. Dezső Kozma and Péter Cseke later also had the right to be supervisors.

Other proferros have also joined the Doctoral School – Emese Egyed, Csilla Gábor, Gyöngyi Orbán, Johanna Domokos, Levente T. Szabó (literary studies); Vilmos Keszeg, Ferenc Pozsony, Vilmos Tánczos (ethnography); Sándor Szilágyi N. and Attila Benő (linguistics).

The director of the Doctoral School was János Péntek until 2008 and Vilmos Keszeg is directing it at present.