Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-137.147.181.254-20130701215714/@comment-7153552-20130702161311

They have said the the College might be present, but not overly active at release. Much like the boundries you're given on some of the provinces, they're waiting to see how well it runs and takes off before spending way too much time, money and effort on the overall product. So they're focussing on the central story and the three-faction conflict and things of that nature before adding all the outskirts of things (physical and metaphoric). But I would expect to see it without the ability to join, at least early on.