IU International University of Applied Sciences

IU International University of Applied Sciences (German: IU Internationale Hochschule) is a private for-profit university of applied sciences based in Erfurt, Germany. It opened in 2000 and was formerly known as the International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef / Bonn (Internationale Fachhochschule Bad Honnef/Bonn or IFH).^[2]

IU International University of Applied Sciences

Type	Private
Established	1998
Rector	Holger Sommerfeldt
Students	130,000[1] (2025)
Location	Erfurt , Thuringia , Germany
Website	www.iu.de (German site) iu.org (international site)

IU Campus Erfurt

IU Campus Bad Honnef

IU provides vocational programs in German and English, for which it offers in-person teaching on campus as well as distance or blended learning. The university offers separate German (iu.de) and international (iu.org) programmes. With over 130,000 enrolled students, IU is the largest state-accredited university in Germany as of the summer semester of 2021^[3] and features amongst the largest universities in the world.

History

IU was founded in 1998 as the International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef / Bonn (IFH), and its first intake took place in the winter semester of 2000/2001 with 23 students.^[4]

In July 2009, the German Science and Humanities Council institutionally accredited the university for ten years,^[5] followed by reaccreditation for another five years in 2021.^[6] In 2010, it became a member of the German Rectors' Conference.

In mid-2013, IU merged with Adam Ries University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt, another private university, expanding its offerings to include the dual study model. In March 2016, it merged with the University of International Business and Logistics (HIWL) in Bremen and has since started offering dual study programs at this location.

In October 2017, it was renamed to IUBH International University of Applied Sciences. In March 2021, another renaming took place to IU International University of Applied Sciences. In 2019, the registered office of the university was moved to Erfurt.^[7]

As of 2025, the university had over 4,000 employees.^[1]

Organization

The university has been state-recognized since 1999 and accredited by the German Science and Humanities Council in 2009 and 2021.^[5][6] The study programs as well as the university's internal quality management ("system accreditation") are additionally accredited by the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA) on behalf of the German Accreditation Council.^[8]

The sponsor of the university is IU Internationale Hochschule GmbH, whose sole shareholder since 2007 has been Career Partner GmbH (since 2021: IU Group N.V.).^[9][10] The latter has been owned by the British investor group Oakley since 2017; previously, it was owned by the Munich-based investment firm Auctus from 2007 to 2015, and by the U.S.-based Apollo Group from 2015 to 2017.^[11]

The university's governing bodies are the rectorate, the senate, and an advisory board to represent the professional interests of the departments and companies.

German and international programmes

IU targets two separate markets. In the DACH markets, with iu.de, it offers three study formats: Fernstudium (distance learning), Duales Studium (dual studies), and myStudium (a structured model combining online self-study with tutorials on campus or virtually). In the international markets, with iu.org, it offers English-taught on-campus degrees in Germany, notably in Berlin and Cologne.^[12] Since 2024-25, IU no longer offers fully online degrees to non-DACH international applicants, insteading offering on-campus studies in Germany.

IU offers vocationally oriented programmes in German and English with a mix of on-campus, distance, and blended learning formats.^[13][14]

Study Programmes

IU International University offers more than 250^[1] Bachelor's, Master's and MBA degree programmes in various study formats (face-to-face in-person, distance learning, combined studies, myStudies, dual studies), in the following subject areas:^[15]

• Design, Architecture & Construction
• Health
• Hospitality, Tourism & Events
• Human Resources
• IT & Technology
• Marketing & Communication
• Social Sciences
• Transportation & Logistics
• Business & Management

Locations

In addition to a "virtual campus," the university currently operates 37 campus locations: Augsburg, Bad Honnef, Berlin, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Bremen, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Erfurt, Essen, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Lübeck, Mainz, Mannheim, Munich, Münster, Nuremberg, Peine (until the end of 2021), Stuttgart, and Ulm; locations added starting from 2022 are: Aachen, Bochum, Kassel, Kiel, Mönchengladbach, Potsdam, Ravensburg, Regensburg, Rostock, Saarbrücken, and Wuppertal.^[1][16]

Examination centers for distance learning are available worldwide at every Goethe-Institut location.

Alumni

See Category:IU International University of Applied Sciences alumni

• Klara Bühl
• Sara Däbritz

Criticism

In 2024 and 2025, dozens of court hearings took place, where some former architecture students claimed^[17] that they were not able to work as architects in Germany after finishing their studies at IU International University.^[18] Questions about the professional recognition (Kammerfähigkeit) of some architecture educational programme variants have been raised in public discussions. In subsequent public updates, IU stated it was clarifying recognition differences between study formats and offering bridging options for affected cohorts (for example, via a “Bachelor Architektur Plus” pathway).^[19]

In Berlin, a few hundred international students, primarily from India, had reportedly faced visa extension difficulties, since the studies were mostly conducted on-line instead of on-campus.^[17] However, some of these issues reflect broader structural factors (e.g., housing, bureaucracy) affecting many students in Berlin in general, not only those at IU, and the magnitude of the problem can also be difficult to quantify from individual cases.^[20] As an immediate action, IU has successfully accredited all English-taught programmes as full campus studies starting in October 2025.