St. Joseph's College, established in 1844 by the Jesuits, members of one of the best-known Catholic religious order, has rendered 178 years of remarkable service, not merely to students from Tamil Nadu but also from other states of India and other countries. St. Joseph's College is a First Grade College affliated to Bharathidasan University. It was affiliated to Madras University in 1869. The college celebrated its centenary in 1944, sesquicentenary in 1995 and acquired the Five Star status, awarded by NAAC in 2000. It was recognised by UGC as a College with Potential for Excellence in 2004, reaccredited by NAAC with A+ grade in 2006, accredited again by NAAC at A grade in 2012 and accredited again by NAAC at A++ grade in 2019. The college celebrated 175 years of its inception in 2019. It is the only college in South India with the Special Heritage Status recognized by the UGC in 2015, a glorious feather on the crown of St. Joseph's. The DBT-Star College status is yet another important recognition for the academic excellence of our college. The college stands in the 27th position in National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) by the MHRD of India in 2021. The late Hon'ble Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, an Aerospace Scientist who became the President of India, did B.Sc Physics at this college.

The department of Mathematics was established in 1844,the power of antiquity, the richness of its heritage, the pride of serving the cause of education, the nobility of its goal of uplifting the down-trodden, poor and marginalized. The department of Mathematics is one of the premiere departments, in St. Joseph`s College and has a lion`s share in the prominence and the progress of this great educational institution. In 1911, the University of Madras granted permission to run the Honours course in Mathematics. Incessant showers of success from the department at the undergraduate level ever since 1844 proved its academic fertility to stake its claim for the postgraduate course in Mathematics. From 1960 onwards, the department offers M.Sc in Mathematics and in 1976 the department became a full-fledged research department offering M.Phil and Ph.D programmes. In 2011, M.Sc Mathematics was started in the self-financed stream. After the implementation of the Schools of Excellence in the academic year 2014-2015, the department became a part of the School of Computing Sciences. The Department has at present 26 committed faculty members specialized in diverse areas of Pure and Applied Mathematics. The department has a well equipped computer laboratory with the latest Mathematical software.

It is a fully equipped department with a small library which has a collection of about 300 books and subscribes to a few online mathematical journals.

The department is actively engaged in organizing conferences, seminars, workshops and endowment lectures every year which paves way for the Department to host a good number of renowned Mathematicians in various fields of Mathematics and thereby hones the Mathematical skills of the students. The department conducts specialized coaching classes for JAM, SET/NET examinations for the undergraduate and postgraduate students. The department also offers remedial classes for the slow learners. The Sesquicentenary Mathematics Olympiad is a state level intercollegiate competition conducted every year by the Department of Mathematics since 1994. The purpose of this annual exercise is to bring out the hidden Mathematical talents among budding students of Mathematics at the UG and PG level from various institutions across the state. To commemorate the 175th year of academic journey of our institution, the Mathematics Association conducted the Mathematics Olympiad on a mega scale.

The department is also actively engaged in other activities like organizing training/nurture programme in mathematics for undergraduate, post graduate students, research scholars as well as seminars/workshops by renowned scientists from various parts of the world.