Tuition fees for law students at the University of Alberta could go up by more than half in an effort to put the school in line with others and enhance programming, the Dean said.

U of A School of Law Dean Paul Paton said a change could be coming, he said tuition costs currently don’t match other law schools in Canada.

“If you look at a differential tuition that in Toronto was $32,000 a year, and U of A is $10,000,” Paton said. “Students are demanding, not requesting, demanding the same level of support. It’s unsustainable.”

The faculty is preparing to propose an increase from $10,121 to $15,995 – a hike of about 58 percent.

Meanwhile, the province hasn’t announced applications are open – but officials said they are considering taking applications for tuition increases.

“So what you see right now is a few faculties doing their due diligence to build that so9lid business case required for a market modifier,” Paton said.

Since 2010, tuition fees have been tied to the Consumer Price Index, but the provincial government can make an exception and grant a tuition increase, called a market modifier, if the school proves tuition fees differ drastically from similar programs in other parts of the country.

“These are extreme anomalies where the tuition seems quite different for tuitions charged for similar programs elsewhere,” John Muir, a provincial government spokesperson said.

While other departments might see immediate backlash over a possible tuition hike, that is not the case here – the U of A Law Students’ Association supports the hike, saying it will translate to less competition for jobs once they graduate.

“The reality is we’re in a very stagnant legal marketplace for graduating lawyers,” Scott Meyer, president of the U of A Law Students’ Association said.

Meyer said the faculty has consulted with students, and officials have agreed to certain conditions, such as an enrollment cap.

“One of the conditions we had is we need a moratorium on enrollment, so the faculty has granted that on a four year moratorium,” Meyer said.

Meanwhile, the U of A Students’ Union, representing the entire U of A student body, is opposed to market modifiers entirely.

“This is a big problem we’ve had as student lobbyists in the past and it’s something brought up again and again, so we really do something happens positively in legislation,” Navneet Khinda with the U of A Students’ Union said.

If such a hike at the U of A Faculty of Law is approved by the provincial government, Paton said it could go into effect in 2015, and current students would see their fees increase gradually over the course of their degree, while new students would pay the higher tuition.

With files from Nicole Weisberg