The Intercultural Open University Foundation (IOUF) is an international non-profit charitable organization that provides distance learning courses to master's and PhD students.

The scholarship program was begun by the founders of the Intercultural Open University Foundation, Jan R. Hakemulder and Fay A.C. DeJonge.

[11][12] As a charitable foundation, IOUF is an independent legal entity with a stated mission of serving the public interest through higher education and research.

[14] During his tenure as an educational advisor with UNESCO in Africa, Jan and his wife Fay A.C. DeJonge, convened a meeting of Dutch, German and English professors at Bosk House in Opeinde, Netherlands.

After this meeting, the group decided to provide distributed educational programs focused on the social subjects to students around the world, the Intercultural Open University Foundation was the result.

[18] In 2007, Skepsis, a Dutch magazine which aims to debunk pseudoscience, published an article stating that the founders of the Intercultural Open University Foundation held PhD degrees from distance-learning institutions.