At first, the new institution enrolled only 11 students, but this situation quickly changed and soon the school was able to found a number of new faculties, including, amongst others, law, mathematics, chemistry, political economy and financial science .

In 1805, a boarding school was opened so that scholars from other provinces could come to Yaroslavl and prepare themselves for the university's entrance exams, thus causing an exponential increase in the number of students.

After this the judicial lyceum became very popular and by the late 19th century had such a large number of students that in terms of ranking it was to be found second only to the universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

The Yaroslavl town council then states that it was prepared to make a gift of 16 hectares of land and a lump-sum grant of 1 million roubles to go towards the establishment of the university.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian Provisional Government at last approved the project of transforming the Lyceum into a university, however the revolutionary events that transpired later in that same year prevented the implementation of these decisions.

In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 21, 1919, signed by Lenin, the Demidov Judicial Lyceum was transformed into Yaroslavl State University.

In 1924, the State University of Yaroslavl was closed due to reorganisation of the new-born USSR's education system, all of which was caused by financial difficulties in the country.

The main building of the Lyceum was set alight and burned on the night of 7 July 1918 (lasting until the next day) during the Yaroslavl Uprising and was finally demolished in 1929 .

In the 1990s and 2000s, the university underwent an extensive program of development and has been constantly expanding the number of subject areas it operates in, thus allowing for overall expansion of its academic activities and student population.