A comprehensive study on the past gains, present status, and future prospects of blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and American Indians in higher education is examined using data compiled by the Higher Education Research Institute for the Commission on the Higher Education of Minorities. Separate chapters cover the following: (1) the purpose of the study, the study design, and the value premises that guided the commission's work; (2) the progressive underrepresentation of each minority group at successively higher levels of educational attainment; (3) the severe underrepresentation of minorities in certain fields such as engineering, biological sciences, and business; (4) the major changes in enrollment in undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools during recent years; (5) factors that facilitate or inhibit minority progress in higher education; (6) federal programs implemented to promote minority group participation in higher education (and the relationship between federal and state programs); (7) controversial issues; (8) major empirical findings of the study, and (9) the commission's recommendations. Over 60 recommendations call for reexamining current policies and practices, suggest new services, and spell out urgently needed changes in broad areas of concern, including testing and grading, precollegiate education, community colleges, academic and personal support systems, equality of access, financial aid, bilingualism, graduate and professional education, minority faculty and administrators, government programs, minority women, evaluation of minority-oriented programs, and statistical research on minorities. Appendices include assessment of the quality of data and description of dependent or outcome variables used in regression analyses. (LC)