Arvi Altmäe

Arvi Altmäe (22 July 1942 – 17 July 2026) was an Estonian architect, educator and academic administrator. He was rector of Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool from 1992 to 2010, after earlier serving as director of its predecessor technical school. His published work has centred on quality assurance and the development of applied higher education in Estonia.

Early life and education Altmäe studied architecture at the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR, now the Estonian Academy of Arts, from 1967 to 1973, graduating with honours. He later studied administrative management at Tallinn University of Technology, receiving a master's degree in 1999. In 2009 he completed a second doctorate, in education, at the University of Tampere. His Tampere dissertation, Koulutuksen laatu Viron tekniikan alan ammattikorkeakouluissa, examined educational quality in Estonian technical applied higher education. A university history article published in 2025 also noted that, as director, he supported the holding of an early meeting connected with the restoration of the Tallinn district of the Estonian Defence League.

After the Estonian government reorganised the technical school into Tallinna Kõrgem Tehnikakool in 1992, Altmäe became rector of the new professional higher education institution. A 2025 article issued by the university stated that his rectorial tenure lasted from 1992 to 2010. and a 2004 government order likewise identified him as rector of Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool and chairman of the council. In 2003 President Arnold Rüütel appointed him to the President's Academic Council.

His tenure coincided with the development of applied-architecture education at Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool. Writing in Sirp in 2014, the architecture critic Veronika Valk described how new architecture teaching staff and then-rector Altmäe paid increasing attention to teaching quality at the school from the early 1990s onward.

Death Altmäe died on 17 July 2026, at the age of 83.

Research and publications According to the Estonian Research Information System, Altmäe has been listed as a professor at Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool since 2005. In 2010 Vilniaus kolegija awarded him an honorary doctorate, citing his contribution to higher education in the Baltic states and to Lithuanian-Estonian cooperation among professional higher schools.

Selected works Kvaliteedi tagamise arendamine Eesti rakenduskõrghariduses (Tallinn: Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool, 2005). Koulutuksen laatu Viron tekniikan alan ammattikorkeakouluissa (Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2009).