Herāt University (Persian: دانشگاه هرات / Dānešgāhe Herāt; officially پوهنتون هرات / Pohantūne Herāt) is located in Herat, the capital of Herat Province, in western Afghanistan covering Herat, Badghis, Ghor and Farah Provinces. Herat University is a public institute of higher education, and was inaugurated in 1988, beginning with a faculty of Literature and Humanities. The first President was Abubakr Rashed. It is the second largest university in Afghanistan after Kabul University. 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.