The era of globalization brings great challenges for Islamic educational institutions to improve their competitiveness. These challenges include a lack of innovation in the learning system, limited branding, and not yet optimal adaptation to global quality standards. This study aims to identify the role of benchmarking in improving the performance of Islamic educational institutions to be more competitive at the national and international levels.

This study uses the library research method, by collecting and analyzing relevant literature, including journals, books, and previous research. Through this approach, the research explores the steps to implement benchmarking, such as need identification, partner selection, data collection, comparative analysis, change implementation, and evaluation and follow-up.

The results of the study show that benchmarking is an effective strategy to improve learning quality, management efficiency, and curriculum relevance. Through benchmarking, Islamic educational institutions can adopt best practices from other institutions, such as the integration of technology in learning, improvement of teacher competence, and more efficient administrative management. In addition, benchmarking also helps in strengthening the branding and reputation of the institution, which ultimately increases public appeal and trust.

This research concludes that the implementation of structured and sustainable benchmarking can help Islamic educational institutions not only improve quality and efficiency, but also maintain the identity of Islamic values in the midst of the challenges of globalization.