Menu
About Us
NextGenU.org is a portal for the world to access content created by the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation for International Health (URFFIH). NextGenU.org offers free courses with certificates, and curricula across the health sciences, making these materials available for free to learners, teachers, and institutions. Our training materials are focused primarily in the health sciences and STEM using expert-created competencies and resources.
Yes — we are a cost-free, barrier-free, advertisement-free, educational organization available to everyone around the world.
We are not a university. We do not grant credit or degrees; our university partners and other partners already accredited by their governments and professional societies adopt NextGenU.org courses, and give academic credit for our courses to their enrolled students (for free or for a minimal charge, depending on the university partner). Although many universities use our courses, individual learners also have free and open access to these same courses.
NextGenU.org’s founder, Dr. Erica Frank, began this work by building NextGenU.org’s health sciences online library (www.hso.info) in 2001, to determine whether there was enough depth of resources to create a major health professional training program. Dr. Frank is a professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health; you can learn more about her here.
The World Health Organization states that the world needs over 14.5 million additional health providers and that serious global resource constraints combined with remarkable open courseware opportunities creates a perfect opportunity to leverage computer-assisted technology to train them. Medical and public health schools globally typically allow students to receive credit for educational experiences offered away from their home institution, making such “away rotations/electives” a familiar and credible model for this very important use of NextGenU’s courses. Third, NextGenU.org’s core team is composed of experienced physicians, nurses, public health experts, and health sciences educators.
Africa Mental Health Foundation
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
American Association of Public Health Physicians
American College of Preventive Medicine
ILLAHIE Foundation
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
American College of Sports Medicine
International Federation of Medical Student Associations
American Medical Student Association
International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
International Primary Care Respiratory Group
Association for Prevention Teaching and Research
International Society of Doctors for the Environment
Canada Research Chairs Program
Latin American Pediatric Association
Medical Women’s International Association
Our NextGenU.org staff, and the 1000s of professionals globally who developed and shared resources
College of Surgeons of East/Central/Southern Africa
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Presbyterian University of East Africa
Emory University Center for Injury Control
Public Health Foundation of India
Frank Foundation for International Health
Students, professionals, universities, Health Ministries, and other training institutions and learning communities in every country.
If you click here, you can see publications on our efficacy. We have rigorously tested this free learning model in North American medical, public health, and undergraduate students arenas and with community health workers and primary care physicians in Kenya and in India and have published our results in peer-reviewed journals and other sources. Our research consistently shows as much knowledge gain and greater student satisfaction using the NextGenU.org model than with traditional courses, with the addition of creating a community of practice that interacts globally and productively.
Our technical support team is small, and you will need to access local support for any personal needs, for example, help finding a community partner or someone to supervise your community project. However, please let us know if there are site-related issues by clicking here.
Our offices are on desktops and laptops of contributors living and working on every continent! NextGenU.org is an activity of the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation for International Health, incorporated as a non-profit foundation (a 501c3 organization) in the United States and headquartered in Minnesota.
NextGenU.org’s mission is to democratize education globally and to improve the health and well-being of humanity and the planet. NextGenU.org promotes research and development of knowledge assets that contribute to solving global challenges related to human and planetary health and education and supports efforts to advance education for all to help people build better lives.
email: support.mph@nextgenu.org