A spending freeze on funding for graduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland is expected to affect hundreds of professors and students.

The university's administration is freezing funding for new graduate students, starting fall 2010 because the university's School of Graduate Studies is running a deficit.

"I think in the social sciences and humanities, there's a real sense of horror because they're going to be unable not only to attract students to their graduate program but also to have students assist with them," the President of Memorial University's Faculty Association, Ross Klein, told CBC News. "I think across the board, across the entire university all faculty are going to impacted in a negative way."

Klein says graduate students will probably choose to go to other universities.

He says faculty members also will suffer because they depend on graduate students to help with teaching and research.

Klein estimates there are currently 3000 graduate students at Memorial University. He said he doesn't know what created the deficit or how large it is.