民办高等教育在我国已经发展了近三十年，为经济社会的发展做出了不小的贡献。但是，民办高校的发展却受到产权、质量、内部管理、经费和师资等问题的困扰，面临着不小的困境，因此也招来社会的质疑。学者们从政策、法律法规以及民办高校内部管理等角度出发，探究了民办高校发展曲折的原因，提出了不少好的对策建议。然而，产业组织理论中的SCP告诉我们，市场结构决定市场参与者的行为，市场行为最终影响市场绩效。根据SCP的思想，民办高校发展面临困境，主要是由民办高校面临的高等教育市场结构和民办高校的市场行为决定的。因此，本文从市场结构分析入手，通过考察我国高等教育市场中交易双方规模及分布、产品差异化、市场集中度以及进入壁垒等方面，分析民办高校所面临的市场结构；接着通过基本博弈模型的建立和推导，讨论了这种市场结构下民办高校的市场行为；最后对民办高校发展困境原因给出本文的解释；依此得出相关结论和建议。全文共分五部分。第一部分提出了本文的研究背景、意义、思路以及方法，并对相关重要概念进行了界定。第二部分回顾了国内外相关研究的文献。第三部分从交易双方规模及分布、产品差异化、市场集中度和进入壁垒四个方面着手，分析得出我国民办高校面临的是一个寡头垄断的高等教育市场结构。第四部分根据市场结构决定市场行为的思路，在第三部分结论的基础上，引入基本的博弈模型探讨了寡头垄断市场结构下民办高校的市场行为。结果表明，寡头垄断的高等教育市场结构显著地影响着现有和潜在进入民办高校的市场行为，使得民办高校具有更高的交易费用，从而产生了扭曲的市场行为，最终导致民办高校的发展困境。第五部分在阐述本文研究结论的基础上，提出相关对策建议，具体包括民办高校必须重视品牌建设，规避短期功利行为；发挥外部监督和评价机制在民办高等教育中的作用；民办高等教育管理者应减少不合理的制度安排。

Private higher education in China has developed nearly three decades and has made a lot of contribution for the economic and social development. However, private colleges are facing the problems of property rights, quality, internal management, funds and teacher. So private colleges face much trouble and are blamed by people. Scholars explored the reasons of the developing predicament of private colleges from the policies, laws and regulations as well as the internal management and then put forward many good suggestions. The SCP paradigm of industrial organization theory tells us that the market structure decides the behavior of market participants and market behavior impacts the market performance ultimately. According to the idea of SCP paradigm, the plight in development faced by private colleges is mainly decided by the market structure and market behavior of private colleges. Therefore, this article analyzes the market structure from the start. We analyze the market structure faced by the private colleges and universities through the study of the both size of the transaction and distribution, product differentiation, market concentration and barriers to entry in Chinese higher education market. And then we establish the basic game model to discuss the market strategies of private universities under the certain market structure. Finally, we give the interpretation of the developing plight of private colleges in this article as well as the conclusions and recommendations.The full text is divided into five parts. Part I put forward the research background, meaning, ideas and methods, and the definitions of important concepts. Part II reviews the relevant research literature at home and abroad. In the third part, we conclude that Chinese private colleges and universities are faced with an oligopoly market structure of higher education through the analysis of the both size of the transaction and distribution, product differentiation, market concentration and barriers to entry. In the fourth part, we use the basic game model to analyze the market strategies of Private Colleges and Universities of under an oligopoly market structure concluded in the third part based on the idea of the market structure deciding the market behavior. The results show that the oligopolistic market structure of higher education significantly affects the market behavior of existing and potential private universities. Private colleges and universities have made higher transaction costs, thereby creating a distorted market behavior, which eventually led to the development plight of Private Colleges & Universities. In Part V, we put forward the recommendations and countermeasures based on the conclusions of the study, including private colleges and universities must pay attention to brand building, to avoid short-term utilitarian acts; play the role of external monitoring and evaluation mechanism in private higher education; private higher education regulators should reduce the unreasonable institutional arrangements.