In 1985, a group of Baptist Students started what was then called the Baptist Student Union (BSU), with Keith Blakely as Chaplain.

In 1991, the students felt that the BSU consisted of more that just Baptist students and they saw the need for a more appropriate name. Consequently the BSU was renamed Genesis - a name which they felt represented their multidenomenantional makeup. Between 1990 and 1992, Paul Bradnum was the person in charge of Genesis. He describes the society as a place for students to meet together and discuss issues of concern within a Christian context, as well as ways to tell others on campus about Jesus Christ.

Genesis was based in Highbury, a large house in Rondebosch, next to Rustenburg Girls Junior School. Every Thursday evening the students would meet together, where they worshipped and explored issues that affected their Christian lives on campus. This was followed by a time of fellowship and food. Genesis has always been led by students with input from the church.

There was a transition period of one year, with Paul maintaining some involvement while a team from Jubilee assisted. Siviwe Minyi, Carol Black, Gavin Tucker, and Colin and Bev Young were involved. There was also a team of students working and being discipled. They did most of the hands-on campus activities. Meetings were weekly at Highbury until, after discussions with the Baptist churches who owned Highbury, it seemed that they had better use for the building, especially as the vast majority of Genesis members were now from Jubilee.

After that, Carol was left to look after Genesis with a student team. Dave Jameson provided the elders' oversight. Most of the focus in those first "independent" years (after moving out from the Baptist connections) was on discipleship, with a total of roughly 11 discipleship houses over three years. These were gradually phased out as Frontier Year Projects were introduced.

There were also meetings for students and twenties at Jubilee (then Vineyard). We met in a building in Obs, every Friday evening, with word input, entertainment and pizzas etc. Unfortunately this didn't take off as well as hoped, especially with so many students dedicated to serving youth on Fridays. There was also an annual student camp and activites during O-week. Genesis did well at Sax Appeal (best-sellers for two years or so), held some outreaches during the rugby world cup, held a couple of joint outreaches and praise marches with other Christian groups on campus and, towards the end of Carol's season serving Genesis, there was a praise meeting once a month on upper campus.

Stephen van Rhyn took over the leadership of Genesis and ran the society until 2005. O Week was an important part of the calendar, with a busy week of fun events. Other events were also held throughout the year. During these years most students at the church also started attending cell groups on Wednesday or Thursday evenings.

Sam Adams took over from Stephen and began to expand the activities of the society. At the beginning of 2005, the decision was made to change the name of the society to Jubilee Students. This was done to reflect the integration of the students with Jubilee Community Church as a whole. 2005 also saw the growth of the society into the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a very exciting development. Outreaches were organised each month and O Week Two was formally introduced as another intense week of evangelism. The first-ever Jubilee Students formal was also held in October 2005.

Since the beginning of 2005, Jubilee Students has doubled in size. Sam Adams and Wesley Ncube led faithfully until the end of 2007 when they handed over to Matt and Nicky Hampton. Matt and Nicky have been involved in Jubilee Students for years and are excited about the amazing things God is doing among young people in Cape Town.