As a branch of the University of Freiburg, it was located in the Lanzenhof (today a building housing the administration of justice at the Untere Laube street) and existed from 1686 to 1698 as well as from 1713 to 1715.

Instead of creating institutes, the university was designed with (smaller than usual) departments and working groups, with a focus on developing teaching through research.

The reform measures included the transformation of traditional learning and instructional mediums such as lectures to seminars or tutorials.

Additionally, four Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) funded by the DFG are currently operating at the University of Konstanz.

The "Zentrum für den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs" (ZWN) or Centre for Young Researchers was recognized in this third funding line of the German Excellence Initiative and stirred great interest across Germany, leading the press to refer to the university as the "mini Harvard at Lake Constance".

In that same year, the Zukunftskolleg successfully applied for co-financing from the EU-funded "Marie Curie Actions COFUND" programme in the amount of 6.24 million euros.

When comparing the funding in terms of per-capita values for all academic staff members (including professors), the university climbed one position to 1st place in Germany.

The German Council of Science and Humanities will announce the final decision in regard to the second funding line in July 2019.

[24] The university comprises approximately 90,000 square metres and lies on the Gießberg within the Mainauwald (Mainau forest).

The university's botanical garden is located to the north-west of the north parking lot and is open on weekdays.

Before the independent village of Allmannsdorf was merged with the city of Konstanz on 1 January 1915, all of the land that the university now occupies belonged to this former community.

Designer Wilhelm von Wolff's idea was that "people should be able to stroll through the university as if it were an old city centre with squares and alleyways that provide opportunities for casual encounters, perhaps with something mysterious here and there to rouse expectations".

In order to shorten the routes to the centrally-located Agora, the planners made it a requirement that the radius of the university area should not exceed 500 to 700 metres.

[27] The ARWU for 2022 assigned the University of Konstanz to a global band of 501-600, which correspondingly falls into the 32-36 range among German higher education institutions.

This assessment was underscored by the 2014 edition of the global ranking "QS Top 50 under 50", which also concentrates on universities under the age of 50.

Through the collaboration with the HSG Konstanz handball team, the university supports elite sport activities by offering young and ambitious student-athletes exclusive scholarships.

The University of Konstanz maintains an extensive cooperation network with regional, national and international partner institutions from the areas of science, economics, politics and the public sector.

The Welcome Center, on the other hand, supports and guides all international guest researchers at all stages of their careers (doctoral students, post-docs and professors).

The forum will serve as an interface for "economy, politics and society" and deal with topics related to research and higher education during conferences.

The founding members of the forum were Gerhart von Graevenitz as rector of the university, Renate Köcher from the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach (IfD Allensbach), the biologist and science manager Hubert Markl, the philosopher Jürgen Mittelstraß and the economist Horst Siebert.

A student beer garden on the campus and a bicycle rental service are run by an independent (friends') association.

This applies, in particular, to issuing the semester ticket (Studi-Ticket) and providing BAföG (German Federal Training Assistance Act) counselling.