Established in 1976 in Sydney, Australia by Engineer-Producer Dr Thomas Misner, a pioneer in audio engineering education, SAE Institute is the largest media technology training institute in the world today. In the beginning, SAE Institute was better known as The School of Audio Engineering, hence the abbreviation 'SAE'.

To keep up with the changing trends of the global media industry, SAE created various innovative and highly practical media technology programs to allow its students to remain competitive and gain employment within this fast growing and dynamic industry. These changes lead to the renaming of The School of Audio Engineering to 'SAE Institute' around the world. It is the first training institute in the world to offer practical audio education with a professional curriculum and training methodology.

SAE Institute took wings with its first batch in February 1977, spreading out to Melbourne and Brisbane by 1980. Its in-house training facilities were then and are still constantly upgraded to meet new technological advancements within the changing industry.

SAE also began what was Australia's first professional audio magazine - Australian Sound and Broadcast and housed the Audio Engineering Society till late 1980.

In 1981, a special commercial recording studio - Central Recorders was set up in Townsville to train the local TV and Radio staff.  Some world famous records were produced in Central Recorders and this lead to SAE getting its first government recognition as a public service organization. Today, SAE owns numerous internationally renowned commercial studios that operate under the name 'Studios 301'. In fact, the Studios 301 in Sydney, Australia is the second largest and oldest studio in the world.

SAE also began accepting overseas students in 1981 and since then there has been no stopping either in terms of recognitions, affiliations or spreading out on an international magnitude.

SAE has since expanded with 48 wholly owned and franchise institutes, in 20 countries and 4 continents making it the largest Audio Engineering, Multimedia and Digital Film Production training institute in the world.

Today an SAE certification is an assurance of professional excellence in Audio Engineering, Multimedia, Digital Film production and animation fields.