Kristu Jyoti College, the studentate of theology of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Bangalore, traces its origin to October 26, 1967. His Eminence Cardinal D. S. Lourduswamy, the then Archbishop of Bangalore, blessed the college building in the presence of Rev. Fr. Aloysius Ricceri, SDB, the then rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco on February 24, 1968, thereby officially inaugurating the college. KJC has been affiliated since 1981 to the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome, (UPS) conferring the Bachelors Degree in Theology. Since 1995, the college has been aggregated to the Faculty of Theology of the UPS and offers Master’s Degree in Theology with specialisations in Faith Education and Youth Ministry. In 1984, KJC also started a seven-month Diploma course in Faith Education and Youth Ministry. It also started conducting a two-year course in Philosophy from June 1996. Another initiative of the college is the three-month course on Liturgical Animation, which commenced in June 1998. From 2010 the college began to offer an M.Th with specialisation in Liturgy.

From the very outset, KJC has been deeply involved in and committed to the upliftment and welfare of the specific locality where it is situated and of the city of Bengaluru as a whole. This involvement and commitment assumed different thrusts in the concrete. With a view to a more organised and articulated service to society, the Social Service Guild (SSG) of the college was registered as a society on December 12, 1973. It has been functioning ever since and grown from strength to strength. At about the same time, the students of KJC began their involvement in another sector, i.e., the care of the marginalised as well as migrant youth, particularly in the city of Bengaluru. Yet, another sector of involvement of the students of Kristu Jyoti College concerns the service rendered in the different parishes of Bengaluru. The College has a publishing centre of its own, known as Kristu Jyoti Publications, which manages the journals and organises the publication of books.