In 1975, the Indian shipping industry for the first time felt the requirement for graduate mechanical engineers. Since then, graduate mechanical engineers from institutions like NITs, Punjab Engineering College (PEC), UIET (Chandigarh), College of Engineering Pune and state government colleges have been passing out from MERI (DMET), Bombay. Initially, the course was for six months and was named as Post-Graduate Course in Marine Engineering issued by Govt. of India. Later the course gained its recognition as Post-Graduate Diploma in Marine Engineering (PGDME) issued by IMU.