The establishment of the Faculty of Maritime Studies has its roots in the great maritime heritage of Rijeka and its surroundings and represents a natural cycle of development of maritime education in this area. Today's Faculty of Maritime Studies is preceded by the College of Maritime Studies in Rijeka, founded in 1949. The Regulation on the Establishment of the College of Maritime Studies established three departments: maritime-nautical, marine engineering and maritime-economic, and the regulation provided that other departments could be established, depending on the needs of the maritime economy. The Maritime College is the oldest higher education institution in Rijeka and the oldest maritime college on the eastern Adriatic coast established after the World War II (other maritime colleges were established only after 1959). The work of the Maritime College Rijeka began on 18 October 1949 in the building of the former "Royal Hungarian State Nautical Academy" (today it is the building of the Catholic High School in Omladinska Street 14). The Italian Maritime High School – Istituto tecnico nautico was located in the same building during the Italian occupation of Rijeka. In 1951, the Maritime College moved to the premises of the former Matteotti Elementary School, and in 1956 a radio-telegraph department was opened. The first foreign students enrolled in 1960 on the basis of international technical and economic cooperation, and the electrical engineering department opened in the same year. In 1964, the Port Transport Department was opened for staff with higher education, specializing in technology and the process of port operation. Also, the college established permanent services: Overhaul service for general audit of main and auxiliary engines and cleaning of boilers on ships; Department of Navigation and Navigation Safety – service for maintenance and certification of ship rafts for rescuing passengers and other safety equipment. In the same year, the Liferaft Testing Station started operating (which included servicing and testing safety equipment and liferafts of the world's leading manufacturers). At the same time, the Service for Chart Corrections started operating, and within the College of Maritime Studies, the service activity of maintaining marine engines began, which soon became independent in a working organization called Remont servis. In 1969, the Interfaculty Study of Marine Engineering and Nautical Profession was founded. It was a part-time study lasting 8 semesters for gaining the title of graduate engineer. In cooperation with the Port of Rijeka, the fifth department was opened – the Port Transport Department lasting five semesters (because the employees of the Port of Rijeka did not interrupt their work but studied and worked in parallel, so the fifth semester was introduced in order to master the complete material with reduced weekly fund of hours) which educated managers of operative units and departments, dispatchers, warehouse operators, ship operators, heads of working groups and the like. On the initiative of the College of Maritime Studies in Rijeka, the Association of Maritime Schools of Yugoslavia was founded, which brought together high schools and higher education institutions from Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro, to harmonize curricula, plan common teaching equipment and aids, professional and scientific work and student cooperation. In 1978, the Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport was founded by integrating the College of Maritime Studies and the Department of Maritime Affairs and Transport of the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka. The Faculty was located in the building of the Maritime College, which, in terms of space and staff, with its teaching equipment and library, formed the core of the new Faculty. It was the first and for a long time the only Faculty of Maritime Studies in the former Yugoslavia. In the following years, the programmes were modernized and harmonized with the STCW convention, various important meetings and conferences were held, simulators were equipped, and in 1992 the Faculty was given its current name (Faculty of Maritime Studies). In 2000, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications granted the Faculty of Maritime Studies m/b "Burin" for storage, maintenance and for student navigation practice. By the decision of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Department of Nautical Studies of the University of Rijeka and the Maritime College were integrated into the Faculty of Maritime Studies of the University of Rijeka in 2001. In the following years, the Bologna system of study with 5 study courses was accepted. Today, the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka operates through 5 undergraduate and graduate courses (Nautical Studies and Maritime Transport Technology, Marine Engineering, Marine Electronic Engineering and Information Technology, Technology and Organization of Transport, Logistics and Management in Maritime Industry and Transport), the doctoral programme "Maritime Studies", and a rich scientific and social activity.