Longtime University of North Texas faculty leader Audhesh Paswan has been named as dean of New College at the UNT at Frisco campus.
“Audhesh has considerable industry experience and a diverse wealth of knowledge that will be crucial to our continued success with the new UNT at Frisco branch campus,” UNT President Neal Smatresk said in a statement. “He will keep us moving forward with the innovative programs and competitive partnerships we’re building through New College that are particularly attractive to business and industry leaders — and our growing Collin County student base.”
Audhesh Paswan. University of North Texas (German Torres/UNT Photo)
The university said that Paswan is responsible for continuing to develop New College programs such as Project Design and Analysis, a cohort-based program in which students work closely with faculty and businesses to graduate with industry-ready skills in just three years, and the revolutionary Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences, which allows students to combine their real-world experience and existing college credits to complete a degree that meets their educational and career goals.
UNT at Frisco poised for growth on 100-acre campus
Both programs are housed at the UNT at Frisco branch campus.
Classes began earlier this year at UNT at Frisco’s newly opened, $100 million Frisco Landing building.
The 135,000-square-foot Frisco Landing will be home to many of the 2,500-plus students enrolled at UNT at Frisco, which offers 27 undergraduate and master’s level programs. It’s the first permanent building to be built on the UNT at Frisco campus, located on 100 acres of land at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Panther Creek Parkway. The land was donated by the city of Frisco at no cost to strengthen its partnership with the Denton-based University of North Texas System.
UNT at Frisco’s Frisco Landing building at sunset [Video still: UNT at Frisco]
A professor of marketing, Paswan joined UNT in 1999 after a successful career in the advertising and consumer product industries, the university said.
He was an account manager and planner in the advertising industry with HTA (JWT) and Clarion (McCann) and as brand manager in the pharmaceutical industry, UNT said. He has been the associate dean for academic affairs in UNT’s G. Brint Ryan College of Business since 2015.
Cultivating master’s program
Under his leadership, the college grew its master’s programs nearly six-fold and solidified its national reputation through programs such as its top-ranking online M.B.A. programs.
The university said that with a student-centered curriculum and forward-thinking faculty tuned in to current and future workforce trends, UNT at Frisco is evolving into a hub for knowledge and innovation in North Texas that bridges the gaps between the university and the public and private sectors.
“Our mission at UNT at Frisco is to develop programs that will help our students become better equipped to handle the needs of the future,” Paswan said. “We need to prepare our students to be able to solve problems that may not exist right now. Multidisciplinary knowledge and creative use of such knowledge will play a crucial role in this effort. To me, this is the exciting part.”
He succeeds Wesley Randall, who was dean of New College since 2018.
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