The International Business School (IBS) is a private, for-profit institution of post-secondary education based in Nuremberg, Germany. It does not have German state accreditation. The school was founded in 1984 and focuses on business and management education. In April 2018, IBS announced that it would cease operation in 2021 and would accept no further students after the 2018 summer term. History The school was originally established in Lippstadt in 1984 as a GmbH (private limited company). By 2002 further branches were established in Bad Nauheim and Berlin. Although the Bad Nauheim and Berlin branches were registered as separate companies, they all had the same director and shareholders and all three were wholly owned subsidiaries of the . Nevertheless, on their websites the three IBS branches misrepresented themselves to prospective students as "non-profit" institutions. Initially, the school offered only its own diploma in Internationale Betriebswirt (International Business Administration). However, unlike the whose name it resembled, the IBS diploma was not recognized by the German state. In 2000, IBS began a partnership with the University of Lincoln whereby the British university would deliver and award a BA in Management and an MBA to IBS students via distance learning. The BA would require only two more years of study following acquisition of the IBS diploma. In their advertising, IBS claimed that students would receive a "double degree" (from both Lincoln University and IBS) that was "nationally and internationally recognized". In fact, this was not the case. Neither degree was recognized in Germany. For a foreign university BA to be recognized in Germany at that time, students were required to have attended that university for three full years. This led to numerous legal complaints from students. IBS was also the subject of harsh criticism for deceptive practices and the low quality of its teaching in the 2002 book Die Bluff-Gesellschaft by . In early 2005, a student at the Bad Nauheim branch sued IBS for "malicious deception" concerning the status of the degrees it offered. The judgement of the Frankfurt Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) awarded the student a full refund of tuition fees, further compensatory damages, and legal costs. By 2005 the partnership with University of Lincoln had ended, and similar partnerships were struck with the University of Surrey to deliver an MBA and the University of Sunderland to deliver a BA in management. By that time IBS was describing itself as an "American-style