我国近代大学从一萌芽起，就与国运和时势紧密相连。大学因国家危亡而诞生，又随民族独立进程而成长。作为近代大学制度的核心构成的大学教师制度，同样在救亡图存的时代主题下得以孕育与问世，使其起始阶段就不失国家的和民族的责任。这样，山“民族独立”而延伸出来的 “学术独立”思想逐渐成为近代大学教师制度的价值基础或“灵魂”。随着“五四”新文化运动的民主和科学的思想启蒙，从西方引入的“学术自由”思想渐吸纳于“学术独立”这一本土化的观点体内，从而成为近代大学教师制度的新精神。正是由于这种形式与精神融合的制度特征，使得近代大学教师制度的演进成为中西文化会通的一个典型样本，从一个侧面反映了我国近代知识分子成长的轨迹和近代大学的基本理念和办学原则，遂使其成为近代大学制度中业绩不凡的一个部门。 大学教师制度包括资格、聘任、晋升、考核、奖惩、培养及薪酬、退休等基本构件，但聘任是其最重要、最关键的部分。大学教师制度是政府和学校的“共管地带”。我国近代大学教师制度始终在政府、学校与教师共同作用下经历了从模仿到融合乃至创造的演进历程，到了 1940年代已经结出成熟之果。 本文将其演进划分为六个时期，即孕育 (1862-1895)、萌芽(1895-1902)、形成(1902-1911)、发展(1912-1927)、成熟 (1927-1937)和完善(1937-1948)等时期，并以政府的法律法规为制度主线，以大学内部规章为实施细则，力求展开近代大学教师制度的体系全貌和演进轨迹。 以京师同文馆为代表的洋务学堂昭示了近代大学教师制度开始孕育。它在学校制度先例资源极其贫乏的情况下，以官学旧制为外壳，谨慎地借鉴和移植本土的教会学校和欧美大学的办学模式，“中体西用”，中西教习“兼聘”，从而培育了教师管理最先的制度原素。甲午之后，在变法维新和救亡图存的思潮下，近代大学随之诞生。《京师大学堂章程》以专章和其他四章若干节的内容呈现了近代大学教师制度的“婴儿”形态，即确立聘用制度和“以培养入手”的制度演进逻辑。“壬寅癸卯学制”以《奏定教员任用章程》单行法规标志着近代大学教师制度的初步确立，其突出的一是明确大学教员的法律地位，二是首次建立大学教师资格制度。 民元以后，教育民主化思潮涌动，以蔡元培为代表的教育家大胆地借鉴日本及欧美的大学教师制度，并结合中国实际，有一定深度地创立了民国大学教师制度的崭新样式。《大学令》、《国立大学职员任用及薪俸规程》等一组法规构筑了“教授治校”内部管理体制，并以创立新型科研组织来聚集高水平师资，从而铺设“学术独立”之基石，促成大学教师制度的发展。1927-1937 年是近代大学教师制度成熟时期。尽管国民党“严格主义”教育政策很大程度地限制大学教师的“学术自由”权利，但由于大批留学毕业生回国担任大学校长、院长和教授，各大学的教师制度仍程度不一地保留着自由主义传统。《大学教员资格条例》、《大学组织法》等重要法规在教师职务四级分等制、“非聘即走”的自由流动机制、“学界领袖”之造就及退休抚恤制度等诸多方面取得了实质性的进展。 1937-1945年，民族救亡与独立再一次成为近代中国及其大学的主题。大学教师制度在十分困难的战时环境中秉持“学术救国”之志依然顽强前行，并从单一的教师制度转向综合的人事制度，其激励性和保障性制度要素，如进修、薪酬、编制、退休和久任教师奖励等得以添设与完善，尤其在推动大学教师科研工作的相关制度建设上，颇有成效。1945-1948 年是近代大学教师制度建设的 “最后—幕”，《大学法》颁布和建设“一流大学”目标的提出是其光亮的一笔。 我国近代大学教师制度从孕育至完善前后长达80余年，总体上讲是优良的,其标志是一组完善的制度法规文本与我国大学和教师队伍的整体崛起，它的演进为我们提供了一份珍贵的大学教师制度建设的 “近代经验”:“学术独立”与“学术自由”是其灵魂;从移植到创造是其文化理路;政府主导与大学自主、“校长负责”与“教授治校”是其演进的外部动因和内部动力。同时，它最有成效的制度内容是“教授治校”体制、自由流动机制、“按质论价”的薪酬制度和以研究为导向的教师进修制度。

The rise and development of Chinese modern universities was embedded in the life of the country. Modern universities were created as the state was in an irresolvable crisis, and matured in the long struggle of Chinese people for national independence. The system of university teachers, the core part of Chinese modern universities, was gestated and nurtured in the national salvation, and accordingly developed with an ever-growing self-consciousness of going all out to save the nation. Thus, "academic independence", the essential ideology extended from the ideal of “national independence",became the theme of value or soul of the system of university teachers in modern China. In the enlightenment of democracy and science promoted during the New Culture Movement of May Fourth,the idea of “academic freedom”originating from the western universities had been absorbed into the much indigenised view system of “academic independence",and became the new spirit of system of modern university teacher in China. Thanks to this educational indigenisation, the development of the system of modern university teachers in China is a typical example of Sino-Western Cultural integration, and silhouettes a way of growth of intellectuals in modern China and reflects the ideals and principles of modern universities in China. As a result, the system of university teachers gained more impetus and shaped up nicely. The system of modern university teachers has such key components as qualification, appointment, promotion, evaluation, rewarding, nurturing, salary and retirement. Teacher appointment, however, is the most important among them, co-managed by government and university authorities. The system of modern university teachers, always moulded by influences of government, university authorities and teachers, walked a way from cautious imitation of counterparts to indigenisation to innovation. In the 1940s, the system of university teachers had already taken shape in China. This dissertation intends to unfold the general picture of the system of university teachers in China and traces the evolution of it from the mid 19th century up to 1948 by dividing this probable 80 years into six stages, namely, the period of gestation (1862-1895), the period of emergence (1895-1902), the period of formation (1902-1911), the period of growing (1912-1927), the period of maturing (1927-1937) and the period of perfecting(1937-1948). This dissertation accordingly relocates the official legal documents as the main line to trace the evolution of the system and explores into the internal regulations that are the specific rules to runthe system. The rise of the earliest modern government schools in China, represented by the Imperial Tongwen College of Peking, initiates the formation of the system of modern university teachers in China. The prototype of modern university in China, these earliest modern government schools, having had quite few early indigenous examples to follow, kept the old educational institutions as the external form, and began to learn from the models of indigenous Christian schools and western universities. Motivated by the idea “Chinese substance and western function",these new-style government schools hired teachers from both China and western countries, thus formulated the earliest element of teaching personnel. After the first Sino-Japanese War, the first modern university, the Imperial University of Peking, emerged in China in the background of Reform Movement and national salvation. Charter of the Imperial University represents the infant look of the system of Chinese university teachers with a separate chapter and several sections in other four chapters, which settled the teacher appointment rules and set “teacher cultivation”as the start point of evolution logic of the system of university teachers. Charter of Teacher Appointment out of Renyin-Kuimao Educational System symbolises the initial settlement of the system of university teachers in modern China by clarifying the legitimate status of university teacher and setting up an initial framework of teacher qualification. After 1912, thoughts of education democratization swept across China. As a result, new educators headed by Cai Yuanpei modeled the system of university teachers on Japanese, European and American universities, and finally established the new system of university teachers in the period of republic of China, with Chinese factors much considered and integrated. A series of regulations on universities issued by central government of China subsequently, such as Directive about University, Regulations on State University Faculty Appointment and Salary, constructed an internal framework of faculty-governance in university. This had been followed by the creation of new organisations of scientific research to gather advanced teaching personnel.All these pioneering ventures formed the basis of “academic independence"and promoted the system of university teachers to a more advanced level. The eleven years from 1927 to 1937 witnessed the maturing of the system of modern university teachers in China. Despite the restraint on the rights of academic freedom imposed by Kuomintang's rigorist education policy, the tradition of liberalism was still maintained more or less within the system of university teachers in different universities thanks to the fact that lots of overseas graduates returned to China to became university heads, deans of faculty and professors. Some important higher education laws promulgated over this period, such as Regulations on University Teacher Qualification and Law of University Organisation, made much concrete progress in either the stratification of teacher posts into a four-tier structure, or the building of up-or-out rules-centred mechanism of free flow of personnel, the forming of a culture of cultivation of academic leading figures, or the establishing of regulations on teacher retirement and pension. From 1937 to 1945 national salvation and national independence became the theme of China and Chinese universities again. Under that severe wartime conditions, Chinese universities, loyal to the idea of "saving the nation with education", began to change their system of teachers from one single track to more tracks combined, namely a comprehensive personnel system. Institutional elements of incentive and guarantee, such as in-service advanced training, salary, personnel quota, retirement and reward for senior teachers,were added and improved.Teachers’scientific research was particularly well systematized. From 1945 to 1948 the construction of the modern China came to its final scene. These four years saw the promulgation of University Law and the setting of the goal of creating first-class university. The eighty years of development of the system of university teachers in modern China from its gestation to its full maturity, was remarkable and historic with the issue of a complete set of legal and administrative documents and thefull emergence of community of university teachers. This history has impressed us with its valuable modern experiences about the building of a system of university teachers:“academic independence" and "academic freedom" are the soul of it; the shift from simple borrowing to self innovation is the line along which modern university culture has evolved; university self governance under the direction of government, the general leadership of university chancellor and faculty-governance are the external motivation factor and the driving force from inside. The most effective parts of it are the mechanism of faculty-governance, the mechanism of free flow of university personnel, a salary system based on pricing by quality and a research-oriented in-service advanced training system.