This paper studies the relationship between the development of policies for higher education and social intergenerational mobility, from the comparative study of cases form Chile and Colombia. It seeks to determine, if institutional conditions in higher education promove social mobility or attach into certain social level, in the context of post-entry neoliberalism 1980-2010. It is analyzed from an institutionalism approach, asking how cognitive changes are embodied in the new legal structures that regulate university education, taking for it four fundamental aspects: university types, coverage, dropout rates and rates of return of capital for recent graduates. At the end, It seeks to understand how the changes in the political orientation from graduate and postgraduate institution produce social mobility in the cases of Chile and Colombia.