Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 under the terms of the State Legislature "Western Sydney University Act 1997 No 116", which created a federated network university with an amalgamation between the Nepean College of Advanced Education and the Hawkesbury Agricultural College.

The Macarthur Institute of Higher Education was incorporated in the university in 1989. In 2001, the University of Western Sydney was restructured as a single multi-campus university rather than as a federation. In 2015, the university underwent a rebranding, which resulted in a change in name from the University of Western Sydney to Western Sydney University. It is a provider of undergraduate, postgraduate, and higher research degrees with campuses in Banks town, Black town, Campbell town, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta, and Penrith.

The University consists of an amalgamation of campuses, each with their own unique and individual history. In 1891, the NSW Agricultural Society established the Hawkesbury campus as an agricultural college. At Parramatta, Western Sydney University owns and has renovated the Female Orphan School building, the foundation stone of which was laid by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1813.In 1987, the New South Wales Labor government planned to name the university Chifley University, after the former Labor Prime Minister, Ben Chifley. However, in 1989, a new Liberal government reversed this decision and controversially named it the University of Western Sydney