The Australian Institute of Building (AIB) is a professional society founded in 1951, incorporated in 1955 and granted a royal charter in 1969.

It has played the lead role in the establishment of all building and construction management undergraduate programs offered by Australian universities.

Leaders of the industry appreciated that building was developing from empirical craft processes to a technological discipline spanning physical sciences and involving construction techniques which were unknown in the early part of the 20th century.

As building involved investment of public and private capital to a greater extent than any other commodity, rational, economic and efficient working was essential.

A trend to higher educational standards and a more positive approach to training executive and technical staff of Building organisations was clearly required.

A 'Committee of Investigation' was set up in 1947 by a convention called by the then Master Builders' Federation of Australia (MBFA) which, although firmly established since 1890, was not acceptable as a professional body because it was an employers' organisation.

On 23 November 1951 the Foundation Dinner was held in Sydney and the then Mr Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia, was presented with a Certificate of Honorary Membership.

Having established itself and received recognition accorded by a royal charter, the institute began to redefine its educational requirements at Licentiate and Corporate grade.

This approval, under the Industrial Research and Development Incentives Act, recognises corporate members of the institute as professionally qualified.