The College of Fellows (CoF) was officially inaugurated in April 2022 as a central institution of the University of Tübingen within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. With the CoF, the University of Tübingen is establishing a university-based Institute for Advanced Studies, which is aimed at all international guest researchers. In doing so, the University is developing the Center for Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Studies further. In addition to the centrally nominated fellows, the CoF is open to all research fellows invited to the faculties and financed by third-party funds.

At the College of Fellows, Research Fellows are given the opportunity to present their research to a broader university public. Moreover, they can participate in longer-term interdisciplinary working groups (focus groups) or initiate them themselves. Besides the international Research Fellows, the CoF invites all university members to set innovative research topics by participating and contributing to various event formats and Focus Groups, and to actively shape the collegial international and interdisciplinary exchange at the University of Tübingen and with the public.

The College of Fellows is a place where interdisciplinary exchange is fostered and where topics and questions can be raised that do not immediately give rise to new research projects. In this way, the CoF complements the research work at the faculties and within the framework of already existing interdisciplinary initiatives and offers a forum for intensive and open exchange where new impulses can be set. In addition to interdisciplinarity, the focus is on global and intercultural issues. The CoF aims to unite the innovative potential of the many outstanding academics from all over the world at the University of Tübingen and their different perspectives, to create a place where questions of global social relevance can be discussed. To this end, the CoF regularly invites internationally renowned guests for short stays in order to address current topics and to set focal points around which discussions and events can form. With its events, the CoF also reaches out to the broader public and thus contributes to making the internationality of the academics at the University of Tübingen visible.