A Study on the Transformation of University Academic Governance Based on the Academic Committee System

学术委员会作为现代大学的核心组织，是大学学术治理的最高机构和教授治学的制度保障。学术委员会的制度变迁与大学学术治理体系的现代化变革相伴而生。1963年公布的《教育部直属高等学校自然科学研究工作暂行简则(草案)》首次提出了学术委员会的初步构想。改革开放后，学术委员会得以制度回归，基于学术委员会制度的大学学术治理历经四个阶段变迁：学术委员会的制度回归与大学学术治理的体系重启(1978~1985)、学术委员会的立法确立与大学学术治理的法理赋权(1986~1998)、学术委员会的规范建构与大学学术治理的体系成型(1999~2013)、学术委员会的体系革新与大学学术治理的现代转型(2014~至今)。现代大学学术治理在立法中生成并确立，在实践中不断改革与转型，构成了中国高等教育治理现代化的核心要素。As the central governing body in modern universities, academic committees constitute the supreme authority for academic governance and institutional safeguard for faculty governance. The institutional evolution of academic committees has been intrinsically intertwined with the modernization of university academic governance systems. The establishment of academic committees was first proposed in the Provisional Guidelines for Natural Science Research in Ministry-Affiliated Higher Education Institutions (Draft) issued in 1963. During the post-reform and opening-up era, the gradual separation of political, administrative, and academic powers facilitated the institutional reinstatement of academic committees as organizational vehicles for academic authority. The development of university academic governance based on academic committee systems has undergone four historical phases: the Institutional Reinstatement of Academic Committees and Systemic Restructuring of University Academic Governance (1978~1985), the Legal Codification of Academic Committees and Jurisprudential Empowerment of University Academic Governance (1986~1998), the Normative Institutionalization of Academic Committees and Structural Consolidation of University Academic Governance (1999~2013), and the Systemic Innovation in Academic Committees and Modern Transformation of University Academic Governance (2014~Present). Rooted in legislative frameworks and refined through practical reforms, university academic governance has emerged as a cornerstone of China’s higher education modernization.