Herat University (HU; Persian: پوهنتون هرات; Pashto: د هرات پوهنتون) is a public university located in Herat, the capital of Herat Province, in western Afghanistan. It was inaugurated in 1988, beginning with a faculty of Literature and Humanities. The first President was Abubakr Rashed. The university has 14 faculties and 45 departments. The most popular field of study is Education/Pedagogy and around one-third of the university's 10,500 students are women.

In recent years, Herat University could manage and maintained relations of cooperation with a number of foreign Universities such as United States, Germany, Italy, Thailand, Slovakia, Iran, India and Indonesia. As a result of this cooperation teaching curriculum in faculties of Computer Science, Science, Engineering, Economics, Agriculture, Medicine, Religious and Islamic and Journalism and mass communication has been partial or totally amended and syllabi and textbooks are prepared as well.

In 2022, after the Taliban takeover of Herat Province, women were banned from attending universities and any classes in universities, which has drastically affected Herat University, one of Afghanistan's largest universities.

Herat University had as of 2012^[update] graduated about 6039 specialists.

Herat University has^[when?] 16 faculties and 71 departments, the students are studying in different faculties and different fields. Right now, Herat University has 457 faculty members and 17,898 students.

Herat University faculties are Agriculture, Applied Science, Computer Science, Economics, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Journalism, Law & political Sciences, Literature & Humanities, Medicine, Public Administration, Dentistry, social sciences, Theology & Islamic Studies, and Veterinary Science.

Herat University is a major regional university and supports 4 filial universities in western provinces of the country. These universities are located in Nimrooz, Badghis, Farah, and Ghor.

Herat University offers a range of academic programs for credit, at the baccalaureate levels (over 100 majors) and 1 master program in Dari Literature.

• List of universities in Afghanistan