AE Sustainable Success in Higher Education by Sharing the Best Practices as a Result of Benchmarking Process Amfiteatru Economic 688 SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION BY SHARING THE BEST PRACTICES AS A RESULT OF BENCHMARKING PROCESS Anca Gabriela Ilie 1 , Mihaela Maftei 2 and Oana Antonia Colibăşanu 3 1) 2) Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania 3) STRATFOR, United States of America Abstract The paper proposes to review the main benchmarking criteria, based on the quality indicators used by the higher education institutions and to present new indicators of reference as a result of the inter-universities cooperation. Once these indicators are defined, a national database could be created and through benchmarking methods, there could be established the level of national performance of the educational system. Going forward and generalizing the process, we can compare the national educational system with the European one, using the benchmarking approach. The final purpose is that of establishing a group of universities who come together to explore opportunities for benchmarks and best practices sharing on common interest areas in order to create a „quality culture” for the Romanian higher education system. Keywords: benchmarking, higher education, best practices, quality indicators, quality culture JEL Classification: D83, I23, I21 Introduction The history of the benchmarking theory, methodology and application to practice of its conclusions began in 1981, when Rank Xerox became the target of a direct attack of its rival competitor, Cannon Company. Rank Xerox Company accepted the challenge elaborating a new strategy with a significant change in the operating mode of its activity. The Rank Xerox Company, through its managing director David Kearns, was the first to formulate a definition of this technique: “a continuous process of measurement of its own products, services and practices in comparison with the toughest competitors or with the companies known as industry leaders”. This definition formulated for the first time the idea of a comparison of the firms not only with their greatest market competitors but also with other companies from which the interested organization can learn something (Bank, 1992).  Corresponding author, Mihaela Maftei - mmaftei@ase.ro