The university offers several interdisciplinary courses such as Global Change Ecology, Theatre and Media Studies, and Health Economics.

[6][7] On 5 November 1969, the Bayreuth City Council addressed the economic stagnation and emigration trends in northeastern Bavaria as a result of its location near the borders with the GDR and Czechoslovakia.

In order to initiate an effective structural improvement, which would guarantee equivalent living conditions with the rest of the federal territory, various measures were necessary.

Konrad Pöhner and Simon Nüssel as well as the mayor of Bayreuth, Hans Walter Wild, who showed great negotiating skills, deserve special mention.

A structural advisory board was formed under the chairmanship of physicist Wolfgang Wild, which expected the university to have 8500 student places and 3200 employees by 1985.

The office of the University of Bayreuth began its activities in 1972, initially in the House of German Shorthand ("Stenohaus") on Luitpoldplatz, which had been built by the National Socialists.

On 23 March 1974, the cornerstone was laid, and on 27 November 1975, Minister of Culture Hans Maier opened the University of Bayreuth with a state ceremony in the Margravial Opera House, with a focus on the natural sciences.

The first structure on the campus was the Geosciences I building west of the "Birkengut" farm, completed in 1975,[12] initially used by the university, but demolished after a fire in 1994.

In 1988, the university library, which until then had been housed in a temporary structure, was inaugurated and the foundation of the 8.6 million DM Humanities II building was concreted.

[16] In June 1991, Czechoslovak human rights activist and state president Václav Havel was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bayreuth.

The University of Bayreuth is divided into seven faculties:[20] The first chancellor was Wolf-Peter Hentschel from 1973 to Oktober 1999, who was already head of the executive office since 1 January 1972.

[29] Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, German Federal Minister of Defence, was awarded a summa cum laude doctorate by the Faculty of Law, Business Administration and Economics in 2007.