This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to identify opportunities for improvement. Benchmarking activities in higher education have now been firmly established and accepted, as institutions seek to improve the quality and efficiency of the many activities in which they are engaged. As higher education institutions face the continued challenges of having to produce more with fewer resources along with calls for increased accountability, it is likely that benchmarking and its many related activities and strategies will become more central and commonplace. As this volume demonstrates, higher education has access to a wide variety of tools and vast opportunities for innovation in benchmarking.