本书以我国高校人事制度为研究对象，在查阅大量历史文献和到各地高校进行调研访谈的基础上，重点探索高校人事制度的变迁轨迹及影响高校人事制度变迁的因素，试图找出影响高校人事制度变迁的规律，从而为构建合理的高校人事制度提供决策支持。本书创造性地运用历史制度主义的视角来审视高校人事制度的变迁，从制度环境、制度中的行动者等来研究中国高校人事制度是如何变迁的。本书指出：中国高校的人事制度经历了三个特征明显的时期：清末（1898—1911年）高校人事高度集权，教职员官僚化，且教育主权受到国外干涉，表现出半殖民性的特点；民国（1912—1949年）高校集权与民主并存，人事权集中于校长，但是同时各高校实行“教授治校”的民主管理，高校教职员逐步去官僚化，教育主权逐步独立；新中国（1949年至今）高校从集权向分权、固定管理向流动管理、行政化向契约化及薪酬从统一到弹性、从平均分配到绩效分配演变，与此同时，新中国高校重“洋”轻“中”与人才外流并存，且与当代市场经济体制改革不相适应的人才计划盛行。

影响中国高校人事制度变迁的，主要是外生性变量（国外高校人事制度、国内政治制度、文化制度）、内生性变量（繁荣学术、追求效率）、行动变量（政府、文化精英和利益集团）。中国高校人事制度的理想图景是尊重高校学术组织的特性，学术目标至上，以大学自治、学术自由、教授治学为基石建设中国高校人事制度。

Based on reviewing a large number of historical documents and conducting research interviews in colleges and universities, this book focuses on exploring the trajectory of the personnel system of colleges and universities and the factors affecting the changes of the personnel system of universities, and tries to find out the laws affecting the changes of the personnel system of colleges and universities, so as to provide decision-making support for the construction of a reasonable personnel system of colleges and universities. This book creatively uses the perspective of historical institutionalism to examine the changes in the personnel system of colleges and universities, and studies how the personnel system of Chinese universities changes from the institutional environment and the actors in the system. This book points out that the personnel system of Chinese universities has experienced three periods with obvious characteristics: in the late Qing Dynasty (1898-1911), the personnel of colleges and universities was highly centralized, the teaching staff was bureaucratized, and the sovereignty of education was interfered with from abroad, showing semi-colonial characteristics; In the Republic of China (1912-1949), centralized power and democracy coexisted in colleges and universities, and personnel power was concentrated in the president, but at the same time, colleges and universities implemented democratic management of "professors governing schools", university faculty and staff were gradually debureaucratized, and educational sovereignty was gradually independent; New China (1949 to the present) colleges and universities from centralized to decentralized, fixed management to mobile management, administrative to contractual, salary from unified to flexible, from equal distribution to performance distribution evolution, at the same time, New China universities emphasize "foreign" light "middle" and talent outflow, and incompatible with the contemporary market economy system reform of talent planning prevail. The changes in the personnel system of Chinese universities are mainly affected by exogenous variables (personnel system of foreign universities, domestic political system, cultural system), endogenous variables (academic prosperity, pursuit of efficiency), and action variables (government, cultural elites and interest groups). The ideal picture of China's university personnel system is to respect the characteristics of academic organizations in colleges and universities, put academic goals first, and build China's university personnel system based on university autonomy, academic freedom, and professorial governance.（AI翻译）