The rapid development of big data has brought new opportunities for the operation and development of private colleges and universities. As an important way for private colleges and universities to assess teachers’ work, performance evaluation is not only an important guarantee for promoting teachers’ work, but also an important influencing factor for private colleges and universities to stand for a long time. There are some problems in the traditional way of university performance evaluation. This paper will further explore the specific application of big data in the performance evaluation of private universities based on its application characteristics.