The establishment of St. Joseph's College of Engineering ,was the fulfilment of a long cherished dream of providing facilities for higher education to the people of the diocese and surrounding regions. The main objective is to develop a college with a distinct identity and character, where education and training are imparted in a truly Christian environment conducive to fostering Christian values such as faith in God, love for their fellow men and devotion to the motherland. Every facility is provided in the campus to create an environment fully conducive to realizing this objective.
Discipline, hard work, positive thinking, commitment to excellence and abiding faith in the Almighty are the guiding principles that propel the college to its vision of emerging as a Centre of Excellence in technical education in the country. Value systems such as eco-friendliness, quality consciousness and work ethics are also being instilled through the special work culture and campus life existing in the college.

SJCET is one among the top 5 self-financing engineering colleges in Kerala as identified by the Alumni Association of NIT Calicut for the information of the public. SJCET is also one among top 10 Engineering College in Kerala where percentage pass is always more than 80%.
The four B-Tech courses, Mechanical Engineering, Electronics
& Communication Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering and Applied Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering which were started in 2002 have been accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

SJCET is managed by the Diocesan Technical Education Trust, Palai under the Diocese of Palai. It has a team of well-experienced academicians and engineering professionals in its advisory board. It has been conferred with Minority Status since 2006.