This article analyzes the current development of the sociology of higher education in countries of the Northern Hemisphere, with an emphasis on the United States and Europe, as well as the field's progress in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, Chile in particular. The author reviews the processes of academic institutionalization and research professionalization and output in the central countries and its subsequent evolution by geographic diffusion, inclusion of new themes, interdisciplinary emphasis, differentiation, and specialization of approaches due to growth in comparative studies of national systems. The article also identifies weaknesses in these same processes of academic institutionalization, professionalization, and research output in Latin America, in contrast with the region's contribution in terms of key characteristic perspectives and study topics.
higher education; field of study; academic research; public policies