Abstract Observed infrared and ultraviolet excesses have widely been interpreted as signatures for accretion discs around young stellar objects. Analyses of the observed properties of these discs are important for the investigation of star formation as well as the dynamics of the protoplanetary disc out of which the solar system was formed. Accretion disc theories suggest that evolution of protoplanetary discs is determined by the efficiency of angular momentum transport. During the formation stages, the disc dynamics are regulated by mixing of infalling material and disc gas. In the outermost regions of the disc, self-gravity may promote the growth of non-axisymmetric perturbations which can transfer angular momentum outwards. After infall has ceased, convectively driven turbulence can redistribute angular momentum with an evolutionary time-scale of the order 105−6 yr. Convection in protoplanetary discs may eventually be stabilized by surface heating as the disc material is depleted. Once the grains in the disc have settled to the midplane region, the disc can neither generate its own energy through viscous dissipation nor reflect radiation from the central star. Consequently, the infrared excess vanishes and the young stellar objects become “naked T Tauri stars.” Protoplanetary formation modifies the structure and evolution of the disc when giant protoplanets acquire sufficient mass to truncate the disc. In this case, a protoplanet's tidal torque opens up a gap in disc. Gap formation also leads to the termination of protoplanetary growth by accretion. The condition for a proto-Jupiter to acquire its present mass implies that the viscous evolution time-scale for the disc is of the order 105−6 yr which is comparable to the age of typical T Tauri stars with circumstellar protoplanetary discs.