BBC chairman Lord Patten has described the independence referendum as arguably the biggest domestic political event in his lifetime and insisted the corporation can cover it in an impartial and balanced way.

The former Tory MP said he was surprised at the amount of time taken up in the UK Parliament talking about a potential EU poll compared to the campaign north of the Border.

The BBC has earmarked £5 million to boost its coverage of the referendum in the run-up to the poll on September 18, 2014.

Coverage will include specially commissioned documentaries and a series of debates from across Scotland over the next year.

Lord Patten, 69, said: "I'm surprised we spend as much time in England talking about Europe and not nearly as much time, indeed hardly any time, talking about the Scottish referendum... arguably the most important issue that has come up domestically in my political lifetime."

He said his biggest challenge as head of the BBC Trust was to avoid the Corporation getting politically caught up in what is a hugely important debate.

He noted: "It would be foolish of us to get sucked into this debate."

Asked about the SNP's assertion that the resources and staff of BBC Scotland would be easily transferred to a new Scottish broadcasting body, Lord Patten failed to answer the question.

He instead directed his comments to the coverage of the referendum in general.

He said: "There is plainly a big problem for the BBC in making sure that we cover the referendum campaign as an impartial and balanced a way as possible.

"We're up to that. We're putting more resources into doing it. I'm not too worried about that.

"What I'm most worried about is the reaction of voters in England, in particular ... to a debate which they will in the early and middle stages be rather uninterested in but will suddenly wake up to rather late in the day. That's going to be the real challenge for us; how we handle that aspect of the debate later on."

Lord Patten said there would be "big implications for every British institution" if Scotland voted for independence, while a no vote would spark a devo-max debate.

He said: "That again will be a difficult issue to handle in terms of English public opinion. So it's a big challenge for us in the BBC.

"Covering the debate in Scotland is something we are up to ... but it's not going to be easy."

The Chancellor of Oxford University also said Scotland's higher education establishments were in "pretty good nick", referring to the impressive research activities at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities.

However, he suggested free university education for Scots would become a bigger issue as competition grew in the sector and the country acquired more tax powers.