James Vorenberg, associate dean of Harvard Law School and master of Dunster House, is a leading candidate for the presidency of the University of Massachusetts, an Associated Press (A.P.) wire dispatch reported yesterday.

The Presidential search committee, headed by Stephen G. Breyer, professor of Law, will meet Monday with the board of trustees. The committee will present five candidates including Vorenberg, to the trustees.

Vorenberg and Breyer yesterday declined to comment on the A.P. dispatch. "Our committee has made no recommendation." Breyer said.

Among the other candidates for the past are Charles Foster, dean of the Yale University School of Forestry and David Knapp, provost of Cornell University.