Arvi Altmäe

Arvi Altmäe studied at Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University of Technology. The recorded working language is Russian, Finnish and English. Distinctions recorded are Order of the White Star, 3rd Class and Order of the White Star, 2nd Class.

• Name — Arvi Altmäe • Born — 22 July 1942 • Died — 17 July 2026 • Citizenship — Estonian • Occupation — Architect, educator, academic administrator • Education — Estonian Academy of Arts Tallinn University of Technology University Nord University of Tampere • Awards — Order of the White Star, 3rd Class (2000) Order of the White Star, 2nd Class (2006)

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 2004 he received a doctorate in social sciences from Akadeemia Nord with the dissertation Kvaliteedi tagamise rakendamine Eesti rakenduskõrghariduses; according to the Estonian Research Information System, the dissertation was supervised by Ene Grauberg. 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.

By early 1990, Altmäe was director of the Tallinn Construction and Mechanical Engineering Technical School (Tallinna Ehitus- ja Mehaanikatehnikum). During the period leading up to the elections to the Congress of Estonia, organisational work for the elections was centred at the school, and later reporting identified Altmäe as chairman of the election commission. 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. He remained at its head after it was renamed Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool in 1999, and a contemporaneous report by ERR noted that he was re-elected rector in 2005. A 2025 article issued by the university stated that his rectorial tenure lasted from 1992 to 2010. Altmäe was also active in national higher-education governance. The history page of the Council of Rectors of Applied Higher Education Institutions states that he was its first chairman, serving from 1992 to 2004, 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.

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

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