As at many colleges, officials in the sprawling system of California's higher education must formally approve visiting speakers.

Early this year, Harold J. Laski, professor at the London School of Economics, scheduled two speeches at the University of California. One speech was to be made at Berkeley, the other at the Los Angeles campus. Laski later changed his mind and decided to speak twice at the southern school.

Permission for this re-scheduling was delayed, however, until it was too late. Laski charged that California officials had in effect banned him from their campus.

Dykstra Apologizes

Clarence A. Dykstra, provost of UCLA, apologized to Laski's sponsors, and termed the delay an "overnight." But students at the university circulated several petitions protesting this "overnight," and U.C.L.A.'s Student Executive Council began a move to obtain some voice in decisions regarding outside speakers.

Laski, who was kept from speaking in a Cambridge high school by the city school committee recently, aroused interest in at least one other place. On March 30, George R. Stunts, a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Washington, suggested that the Board prevent Laski from speaking at the university, although no group on that campus had invited the English economist.