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.

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.

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

In addition to a "virtual campus," the university currently operates 28 campus locations: Augsburg, Bad Honnef, Berlin, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Bremen, Cologne, 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.

In 2022, the following locations are to be added: Aachen, Bochum, Kassel, Kiel, Mönchengladbach, Potsdam, Ravensburg, Regensburg, Rostock, Saarbrücken, and Wuppertal.