Journal of Higher Education Research

The commercial market for higher education in Europe is expanding as governments cut spending on universities in the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis, and universities must be self-sufficient to survive. This commercialization is mainly reflected in the fact that universities begin to pay more attention to fund accumulation rather than improving academic value. With the continuous increase of tuition fees in colleges and universities, students are regarded as consumers and universities are essential commodities needed by consumers. Although commercialization of higher education has some beneficial aspects, such as more funds for schools to provide students with more advanced equipment and more comfortable learning environment, overall, the threat of commercialization to academic quality and social environment cannot be compensated for by those advantages. This paper aims to find out the two main reasons for the commercialization of higher education and the three threats to the social and academic environment brought by the marketing of higher education. Also, the paper also puts forward corresponding solutions for the three major risks; the two reasons analyzed in this paper are mainly the economic crisis and the development of globalization. The three threats are mainly aimed at the teaching quality of educational value and the financial pressure of students. At the same time, the paper gives three corresponding solutions to the threats. This paper argues that the commercialization of higher education severely hinders the improvement of educational value, reduces teaching quality, and brings heavy pressure to students' economy, which directly hinders the healthy development of higher education. If higher education institutions can adopt corresponding strategies to mitigate the threat of commercialization, the commercialization market of higher education may bring many opportunities for the development of higher education industry.