St. Josephs College, Pilathara was established in 2005 by the Diocese of Kannur with a vision to provide quality education to the aspirants of Northern Kerala. It was a region where the demand for higher education exceeded the enrolment capacity of existing Institutions and desired the establishment of new higher education institutions. This is the social context of the inception of St. Joseph’s college. It is situated on the NH 17 Highway in a ten-acre plot of land at the Pilathara Junction. The College started functioning with two courses, B. Com and BSW, in a humble, old building. Within two years, a new building was built to house the college.
Presently the College has 9 Under Graduate and 4 Postgraduate programmes, The undergraduate programmes are B.Com with computer application, B.Com Co-operation, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Social work (BSW), Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA), B.A English Language and Literature, B.Sc. Mathematics, B.Com Finance and B.Sc Psychology. Postgraduate programmes are M.Com with Finance, Maters in Social Work (MSW), M.A English Language and Literature and M.sc Mathematics.