The University of Oxford's research output will suffer “enormous damage” if faculty and staff members from European Union member states are forced to leave the United Kingdom after it withdraws from the EU, warns the university's vice-chancellor, Louise Richardson. In a joint letter published in The Times newspaper, she and the heads of 35 Oxford colleges and educational institutions call for guarantees that EU citizens living in Britain can stay. The letter says: “Our EU colleagues are not reassured by a government which tells them that deportation is not going to happen but declines to convert that assurance into law. Some are worried, some are already making plans to leave. Many of our staff do not know whether absences abroad on research contracts will count against them.” Some Oxford researchers are already planning to leave Britain, the letter adds. It was published on 13 March, the day that the UK House of Lords backed the EU withdrawal bill, which enables UK Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger formal negotiations for the United Kingdom to quit the EU.