Higher education has expanded to the point where the supply of educated manpower far outnumbers the demand. In answer to this problem, several task forces, committees and commissions have been appointed to examine the problems, issues and trends in higher education and to make recommendations that could serve the formulation of more meaningful public policies. The purpose of this paper is to review the recommendations of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, the Assembly on University Goals and Governance of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the HEW Task Force on Higher Education, and the Commission on Human Resources and Advanced Education. Running throughout the reports of the various commissions and task forces is a deep and pervasive concern with the future of higher education in this country. A combination of crises has convinced many educational leaders and spokesmen that higher education as it existed in the sixties is no longer adequate for the changing demands of the seventies and eighties. Implicit in almost all of the reports is the belief that unless reform and renewal are forthcoming, our colleges and universities cannot survive. (HS)