Students were taken aback at the University of Calgary’s proposal to hike some tuition fees by as much as 47 percent.

“I think it’s probably fair to say all of our students are shocked by this. To talk about escalations in excess of 40 percent, that they are expected to bear in under four months, is not only unreasonable it’s totally impossible,” says Charlotte Kingston the president of the students’ union.

The university is targeting professional programs for the dramatic increase, in part, because those students stand to make more money in the first few years of their careers.

Under the proposal, engineering students would face an extra $208 per course; business students would face an extra $248 per course; law students would pay an extra $2,000 annually; students in the faculty of medicine would be asked to pay an extra $4,616 per year.

“These are going to have an impact on students, absolutely,” says Colleen Turner, the vice president of external relations. “Part of the issue has been that the tuition at the University of Calgary, and at all post-secondary schools in Alberta, has been frozen effectively since 2004.”

The university says another reason professional students could face the highest increases is because other Canadian universities are charging more for those programs.

One law student thinks it’s unfair their faculty is amongst those facing the highest hikes. “Just because we’re a professional faculty doesn’t guarantee we’re going to have a job afterwards. Especially in the market that is now and it seems a lot of the students don’t have one lined up,” says Matthew Lofgren.

The hikes have to be approved by the province and the university’s board of governors. If passed, the new rates will go into effect in September.