What have EU citizens done for the UK and the world?

Last week the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield called on colleagues to write 'a paragraph on what an EU member of staff or student has done for the UK or the world' (http://goo.gl/4vqZFj). Although primarily aimed, it seems, at colleagues who are from the UK, I also have a view. It took me a while to formulate my thoughts, but this is what I wrote, eventually:

Many members of staff and students in the School of Languages & Cultures come from outside the UK, mainly elsewhere in Europe but also North and South America, Asia and Africa. It stands to reason. Colleagues from outside the UK make an enormous contribution to our learning and teaching, not only as language teachers, but on all fronts. Students from elsewhere ensure that we have not just a multi- but an intercultural learning and research environment, sometimes through formal teaching but more often by engaging with other students, for example as tandem partners or in our student societies, or through their unique contribution to our research. Likewise, hundreds of language teachers from outside the UK are employed in the country's secondary schools. They have become an indispensible force. Without them many schools would simply have to reduce the number of languages taught or even close their languages departments. And that's already happening far too often.

I myself am one of those non-UK teachers in the School of Languages & Cultures. As a Dutchman, I have known from an early age that I was also a European citizen and that will not change. But here's the irony: most of my colleagues and students who were born in the UK also feel European and that will not change either. For the time being, they are still EU citizens but they will always remain European citizens in their hearts, minds and deeds. I am proud to be working with so many of these EU citizens from the UK.

The University Council of Modern Languages (http://www.ucml.ac.uk/) has called on its members to challenge any language that separates the UK and Europe. I would like the University to do the same. Those labels don't help, because #WeAreInternational.