Tuition fees for some programs at universities in Alberta may increase by as much as 110 percent over the next three years based on plans announced by both the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary.

In addition to across the board tuition increases next year, both institutions are also proposing differential fee models which will see massive increases for students attending the faculties of law, medicine and business.

University of Alberta Students’ Union president Mike Hudema condemned the plan, saying "the University has succeeded in becoming an academically elite institution as well as a financially elite one."

The University of Alberta plans to hike tuition for all students by 6.4 percent, the largest increase in three years. For most undergraduate students, this proposed increase would raise tuition to $4290, an increase of $258 from this year.

Medicine, law and business students at the U of A, however, may see even bigger increases.

For medicine, the university wants to add $2000 to tuition costs in each of the next three years in addition to the 6.4 percent increase. By 2006/07 yearly tuition would be $12,037, an increase of 112 percent.

Tuition for the faculty of law would increase from the current $4300 to $8575, a 99 percent increase.

For a masters in business administration, the price could jump 117 percent over two years to $9778.

"If we allow this as a campus community, we’ll have a two tiered education system where some faculties will only be accessible if you’re fairly wealthy," Hudema says, adding that these differential fees may "open the floodgates to other faculties having similar fees in the future."

The story is similar at the University of Calgary, where a proposed model would likely see law students and masters of business administration students paying $10,000 per year and medical students paying up to $14,500 annually.

The increases would start take effect next September, with some students paying $2500 more each successive year until 2005.

While plans at the U of C have not yet been finalized, discussion of differential tuition increases, as well as a general tuition increase, has students worried.

"Through this model, we’re saying that your pocketbook will dictate what you can do. We’re closing the door on people. That’s the message," said U of C Students’ Union president Matt Stambaugh.

Michelle McCann, president of the U of C Graduate Students Association agrees, saying "it’s going to mean higher debt load and less accessibility for lower-income kids."

Doug Owram, the University of Alberta VP academic and provost says that "without raising tuition to the levels we are proposing, the University of Alberta will have no choice but to institute deeper cuts, cuts that will cause deterioration in the quality of education."

Both student leaders and university administration say that more funding from the provincial government would help solve the problem.

"What’s really been happening is that students have been making up the drop-off in government funding to maintain the quality of their education" said Owram.

Hudema says "we definitely need more money from the province" and points out that a mere one percent of the provincial surplus reinvested in post-secondary education would make fee increases at the U of A unnecessary.

Alberta Learning spokesperson Mark Cooper says that "we have to make post-secondary education affordable to students, but we also have to make it affordable for taxpayers. We believe in a policy of stable and predictable tuition increases."

Cooper also points out that according to provincial legislation, any proposed annual increase must not exceed an average of $260 per student no matter how the increase is implemented.

Opposition parties criticized the Alberta government, with Liberal education critic Don Massey saying "government underfunding has left the University with few alternatives," and New Democrat leader Raj Pannu called the failure to fund education a "Tory tax on learning."

The final decision on tuition increases will be made by the Board of Governors of both universities in the new year.