In the last two decades, Russian universities function in a new socioeconomic environment. Increase of competition due to a rapid growth of the number of universities, decreased number of prospective students, fast changes in the external and internal environment, and changes in the behavior of consumers of education services require universities to use new tools for the increase of their viability at the education service market. The article systematizes the factors that influence the viability of universities in free market environment; expectations of education services consumers are analyzed. Described is a marketing management method based model of viability of a university, and a method to estimate the viability.